this is the business briefing. i'm ben bland. combating climate change is set to take centre stage at davos, but will leaders take the topic seriously or let the issue melt away? and all eyes on vancouver, as huawei's meng wanzhou arrives in court for her extradition hearing. and on the markets, asian shares took a sudden lurch lower amid mounting concerns about a new strain of pneumonia in china, and hong kong's credit rating was cut by the agency moody's.

as we speak, key figures from industry, world leaders and even a few celebs are all descending on the alpine ski resort of davos. at this year's world economic forum, climate change is the hot topic of the week. attending this year will be president trump, teenage climate activist greta thunberg and top executives from firms including google, netflix, coca—cola but is there the will to tackle the issue? there's clearly a business impact, a report by the imf and cambridge university found that if temperature continue to rise by 0.04 degrees every year, for the next 80 years people's wealth on average will 7% lower compared to if action is taken.

however it's not all bad news, the global commission on adaptation has calculated that a $1.8 trillion investment over the next decade — in measures to adapt to climate change, could produce benefits worth more than $7 trillion. well to get more on this, the bbc‘s sally bundock is in davos for us this week and sent this report. world leaders chief executives, celebrities and others gathered here at the world economic forum are being forced to face the multifaceted climate crisis. for the first time ever, it dominates the forum's annual report. we spoke to one teenage climate activist here who talks of her frustrations. we see that their intention is on the right place but the change is not

happening fast enough, so one of the roles of the ten selected young change makers here is to not only add pressure but to convince them that if we can lead by example, why can they not with white business leaders recognise a lot needs to be done to tackle the issues that climate change presents, but it will come at a cost. when you look at the shipping industry, which is basically ensuring that they use clean fuel, that it doesn't harm the environment, unfortunately that will add to the cost of shipping but you have to do it. whoever pays the price, greta thunberg and other climate activist here say it is necessary and they will put pressure on the leaders gathered here in davos to make the change. admit you

we re davos to make the change. admit you were wondering where sally was this week! we will be hearing from her most days. i'm nowjoined in the studio by mirabelle muuls who's the assistant professor in economics at the imperial college business school in london. so, we know the scale of what needs to be done, where does the initiative need to come from, if indeed it is from those gathered in davos? 2019 was for everyone the year where we started being aware that climate change not something that climate change not something that will go away. i think 2020 it will be very interesting to see if businesses and politics rise up to the challenge stopping the response will come from everywhere, hope lee. once people have a figure put on the cost of inaction, that creates an imperative and a motivation to act. prior to that, you would hear people

talking about, if you are going to stop the bridge up, it would mean this impact to your wealth, this impact to the world economy and growth in the way we have known it. for businesses, the reason they are going to act is because not only are customers worried, so they are going to look at businesses to build the infrastructure, to give them the product to be able to change the behaviours of that consumption choice, but also they are invested in these businesses, and they work for us, so we have students that are young and very worried about climate change, they make change by studying and understanding the science and moving into businesses to have a positive impact within those businesses. so, on balance, then, are you more domestic or pessimistic

as we go into 2020? i am optimistic, because ic seeds of change all around the world stopping some of oui’ around the world stopping some of our students are setting up solar energy businesses, in refugee camps, others are thinking of new financial instrument to allow for tree planting to be made in a cost—effective way and for businesses to have the right incentives to bring about change. and when we talk about the impact of not taking the steps needed and limiting global temperature rises, it is easy to think that those who are gathered in davos are from the wealthy countries who can easily adapt to absorb the impact of climate change. i guess the reality though would be that the impact hits

the other countries? yes, the impact on those countries is already being shown and we can think of many countries in the world who have suffered floods, fires, rising temperatures, and so it is our moral responsibility too, to think about what changes can we make in the richest parts of the world to bring about not only the technology and the new innovations that will be pa rt the new innovations that will be part of the solution, but also to start changing ourselves in everyday life. thank you very much indeed. a canadian court has begun hearing the case of a senior huawei executive fighting extradition to the united states. meng wanzhou is accused of violating sanctions against iran. last year in may, the chinese tech giant was put on a us government blacklist, effectively banning american companies from doing business with huawei. our business reporter zoe thomas,

sent us this report from vancouver. lawyers for meng wanzhou spent most of the day focused on a legal principle called double criminality. they argued she should not be extradited to the us because the charges against her are not crimes here in canada. she is accused of violating us sanctions by helping a subsidiary of huawei cell technologies to around. this case has been highly political since her arrest more than a year ago. it is nearly impossible to separate the trailfrom nearly impossible to separate the trail from the political tensions between the us and china. earlier in the day the chinese government issued a statement vowing to protect the rights of chinese citizens. arguments are expected to last the rest of the week but a decision will likely take several more months. shares in chinese drug makers have jumped as concerns grow over the new virus spreading in the country. this comes after confirmation

that the new strain of coronavirus can pass from person to person. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. rico, good to see you stopping this isa rico, good to see you stopping this is a real concern for notjust china but the wider region? that's right, and that is why we are seeing several pharmaceutical and mask manufacturers on the mainland rising by their 10% daily limit on the shin jen and shanghai stop exchanges. amid increasing worries the coronavirus is spreading and the country. the number of people infected tripled over the weekend with outbreaks spreading from wuhan to other major cities in the mainland stopping this development comes as millions of chinese people prepare to travel for the lunar new year holidays. you have the likes of

drug companies gaining io%, and you have the mask manufacturers also rising by io%. the outbreak has revived memories of the stars virus, also a coronavirus that killed more than 700 people mostly in asia. rico hizon, many thanks indeed. now let's brief you on some other business stories: malaysia says it is returning 42 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste to the uk. the uk government received a request from malaysian authorities last year to take the waste back and some containers had already arrived. malaysia has seen a sharp rise in foreign plastic waste since china announced a ban in 2017. the head of google's parent company alphabet has called for artificial intelligence to be regulated. sundar pichai said that individual areas of ai development, like self—driving cars and health tech, required specific rules. last week it was revealed that the european commission is considering a five—year ban on facial recognition. uber has sold its indian online food delivery service to zomato, in exchange for a 10% stake in its rival.

the deal will allow uber to move on from a business that has been making heavy losses. its food delivery business in india contributed just 3% of its total revenues and represented 25% of its global losses for uber eats in the first nine months of 2019. up up next, news briefing. don't go away. the government says it intends to increase minimum sentences for terrorists, following

the london bridge attack in november, in which two people were killed by a man released from prison a year before. here's our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford. the fishmonger‘s hall attacker had come out of prison one year before the attack. he had been serving 16 yea rs the attack. he had been serving 16 years for preparing terrorist acts, but had been released automatically halfway through that sentence. visiting the metropolitan police's specialist training facility, the home secretary has announced a further increase in funding for counterterrorism policing of £90 million, but she also promised that by mid—march, there will be a new bill before parliament, ending the automatic early release of terrorist prisoners and raising their minimum sentence available to judges. we will ensure that we increase sentences to 111 years for the

offenders who are involved in planning terrorist offences but also involved in trading for terrorist offences as well, and with that we are absolutely clear that we are going to be reviewing licensing conditions so that people do not have early release. ministers say they will introduce lie detector test for people recently released and present for terrorist offences, and present for terrorist offences, and they will double the amount of probation officers specialising in counterterrorism. there will also be more psychologist involved in deradicalising prisoners. once someone has been radicalised, no—one is saying that there is a100% guarantee that someone can be deradicalised, but if there is a chance, we ought to be funding that. counterterrorism police say their work has gone up by a third and three years and insist the best way to turn the tide is to divert people away from extremism in the first place.

this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: doctors confirm that a new virus in china can be transmitted from human to human, as the outbreak continues to spread, and a fourth person dies. republican leaders in the us senate outline proposals for president trump's impeachment trial that would give lawyers from each side just 2a hours to present their arguments. hundreds of people from central america trying to reach the us are rounded up by authorities at the mexico border. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the south china morning post, with a sars expert saying there must be a human—to—human link in the coronavirus outbreak. this expert has called for a ban on people with symptoms leaving the most heavily impacted city, wuhan. the times has details of letters smuggled from a prison in tehran,

written by an imprisoned british—australian academic, who says iran tried to recruit her as a spy. the sydney morning herald is reporting on a new warning to the reserve bank of australia that it could be forced to save the country's economy from climate—induced financial distaser. the warning comes amid the country's worst bushfire crisis. next to the guardian, "perilous times ahead" for the bbc with the departure of its director general and conservative mps calling for an overhaul of funding in the so—called netflix era. and the front page of the new york times looks at the success of wildlife documentaries at a time when millions of species are at risk of extinction. with me is priya lakhani, the chief executive