Each January, business and political leaders descend upon the Swiss ski town of Davos to warn against urgent threats to the global order. Each year, they identify climate change as a one of the top risks that the world faces.

And then, for a few days, they make pledges, speeches and impassioned calls to take rapid action and save the planet.

But does it do any good?

I’ve been coming to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum for a decade now.

I’ve heard presidents pledge to “keep 1.5 alive,” a reference to the dangerous global warming threshold. I’ve heard institutional investors say they will pursue net zero goals. And I’ve heard Marc Benioff, the billionaire and chief executive officer of Salesforce, promise to plant a trillion trees.

All the while, emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, which are the main cause of global warming, have continued their inexorable rise. Last year was the hottest in recorded history, the first year in which global temperatures averaged more than 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial times. And now, many of the corporations that made big climate pledges are walking back their commitments.

The mood at Davos

This year, the dissonance in Davos is particularly acute.

The conference opened on Monday, the same day that President Trump was sworn into office and withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement. In a speech broadcast live to the W.E.F. conference Thursday, Trump called the Paris Agreement “one-sided,” attacked Biden’s “ridiculous and wasteful” climate programs and unapologetically promoted fossil fuels.