"The economy of tomorrow has to think about innovation, vulnerability and humanity at the same time" and build competitiveness alongside climate and biodiversity considerations, French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday when addressing the virtual World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos Agenda meeting.

Acknowledging that capitalism has resulted in stark inequalities, Macron said the competitiveness of tomorrow must be built with "an economy more resilient to shocks and capable of integrating elements of resistance into production chains, an economy that takes into account this principle of humanity, in health matters as in social inequalities."

On the COVID-19 pandemic, he said that its first lesson is that "we cannot think about the economy without (thinking about) the human."

"We have done, in all our countries, something that had been considered unthinkable. We stopped all economic activities to protect lives. We are reminded that economics is a moral science and that human life takes precedence over trade and numbers," he said.

This period also "reminds us of our vulnerability....We cannot think of our economy without integrating our vulnerability. What is happening around us has an impact on our daily lives and can change our lives," he continued.

"Nothing can be rebuilt in the post-COVID world if we do not learn from these two fundamental elements: the economy has become again a moral science and nothing is above human value; and our societies are vulnerable to pandemic, climatic and other events," said Macron.

Macron called for more efforts to implement the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate and to adopt similar global rules for biodiversity.

On climate change, Macron said that "the priority of priorities is to do everything possible to keep our commitments in a coordinated manner."

"The first gesture of the new U.S. administration was to return to the Paris Agreement," he said.

"We will not maintain our climate engagements unless we engage our investors, enterprises and states on a biodiversity agenda," he said.

"On biodiversity, ...we will build common rules this year. The COP (United Nations Biodiversity Conference) in Kunming (China) should negotiate for biodiversity the equivalent of the Paris Agreement for climate," he said.

More than 2,000 business, government and civil society leaders and 25 heads of state or government meet virtually for the WEF Davos Agenda this week to tackle the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and address the urgent need for global cooperation.

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