Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, speaking in her capacity as G-8 president and head of the EU presidency, said that globalization is a force for good but that all countries must be treated fairly and integrated into the global economy. "Globalization offers far more opportunities than risks for people - more peace, more prosperity and more growth," she said.
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Session panellist Scott Friedheim, Co-Chief Administrative Officer Lehman Brothers, caught the mood of this discussion on the Shifting Power Equation by identifying business shifts that climate change would cause. “There will be a move away from corporate social responsibility towards long term sustainability,” he said. Annual Meeting participants broke into small groups to discuss which shift would have the greatest global impact in the coming years. Climate change was chosen as the shift most likely to affect the world in the future, narrowly beating the emergence of new markets into second place.