Davos 2022: What to expect from the World Economic Forum's most consequential meeting in 50 years

Eschewing the typical snowy alpine scenes that usually form the backdrop to the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, delegates and visitors to the 2022 event are instead being greeted by green mountainscapes and warm sunshine (for the most part).

The WEF 2022 is meeting in springtime rather than January - when it is traditionally held - for the first time, having been postponed on multiple occasions by COVID-19.

Besides the novelty that the change of season brings, the WEF is meeting at a crucial time.

In its 50-year history, the WEF has never been confronted with such unprecedented global issues as it now faces in 2022, as the world recovers from a global pandemic, grapples to contain the devastating impact of the climate crisis, and navigates a geopolitical storm following the invasion of Ukraine.

"Davos will be different, but not mainly because of the lack of snow but because of lack of global co-operation to solve these most pressing challenges," Børge Brende, President of the WEF, said in a pre-event briefing.

"Global challenges need global solutions, and we're not seeing these global solutions and that's where we have to push at Davos".

Here's what you can expect to be top of the agenda at this year's WEF.

The war in Ukraine means that Davos will look a little different this year. Organisers, for instance, have chosen not to extend an invite to Russian companies or representatives in light of sanctions imposed on Vladimir Putin's regime.

"Mr Putin started the war and he can end it," Brende said. "By again accepting what he has accepted in the past: the territorial integrity of Ukraine".

Russia's absence at one of the most important and exclusive meetings of the global elite has left a noticeable vacuum that