DAVOS, january 24: A dearth of snow threatened to make this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum the greenest ever, but a storm covered the town with a fresh layer of white on Wednesday as participants prepared to discuss global warming and climate change.

The five-day meeting is also focusing on efforts to resolve the seemingly endless tensions in the Middle East.

About 2,500 business and political leaders, journalists, bloggers and celebrities — including musicians and social activists Bono and Peter Gabriel — are meeting at the five-day annual gathering to talk politics, economics and social issues in an atmosphere aimed at finding long-term solutions instead of quick fixes.

Global warming and security are the two dominant issues, according to the Forum’s organisers, and the lack of thick snow in the town that bills itself as the highest ski resort in Europe was a firm reminder that climate change is a hot topic.

The annual meeting is also to focus on securing global energy supplies, including the development of more alternative fuels, particularly in light of oil prices that surged in 2006 before settling in recent weeks, supply disruptions from Russia and attacks on oil pipelines in Iraq and Nigeria.

US President George W Bush called during his state of the union address for American imports to be cut by the equivalent of 75 per cent of the oil coming from the Middle East.

His prescription, as always, relied primarily on market incentives and technological advances — not government mandates.

“America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil,” he said. “These technologies will help us become better stewards of the environment—and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change.”

His words echoed those in Davos.

“By putting climate change at the top of the Davos 2007 agenda, the World Economic Forum has focused on the key challenge of our time,” Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said on the WEF blog. “The moment to act is now. Many of those present in Davos have the power to move decisively on global emission reductions — the world is looking to them to rise to this crucial challenge.”

There will be 17 sessions focusing on climate change, featuring topics to help companies and governments navigate the legalities of implementing policy changes aimed at curbing emissions and pollution and how to make going green profitable.

-MATT MOORE