As Trump melted into the background at Davos, one big new climate idea stood out

London: Something strange happened this week: for the first time in a long time, Donald Trump wasn't the main attraction at a gathering of world leaders. The circus had lost its ringmaster.

President Donald Trump tells the World Economic
Forum in Davos that 'we must reject the perennial
prophets of doom'. Instead of focusing on climate
change, Trump opted to use the global stage
 to highlight the US economy's strength.

It wasn't from lack of trying. The US President blew into the World Economic Forum at Davos and quickly sprayed environmental activists like Greta Thunberg as "prophets of doom" and made the outlandish claim that America was enjoying an economic boom "likes of which the world has never seen". He threw a cluster of attention-seeking bombs but the spotlight just wouldn't stick.

Truth is the master showman's attention was elsewhere. He may have been in Switzerland but the Eurosceptic's eyes were focused on his impeachment trial in Washington and the rapidly approaching November election. Any new major international confrontations would have to wait.

It meant the adults in the room could get on with the job, free from the fallout of any Trump-shaped sideshow. The doom and fear that once dogged Davos gave way to intelligent debate and even some rare optimism about the economy following years of stagnant growth and damaging trade spats.

Read the story from The Age by Bevan Shields - “As Trump melted into the background at Davos, one big new climate idea stood out.”