CEO of Microsoft Corporation Satya Nadella, left, and Chief Operating Officer of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg, right, speak during a panel session on the first day of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday.

Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg says the world won’t change for the good if only men continue to rule the roost.

Speaking at a panel on the first full day of deliberations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sandberg said the gender gap in business and government needs to be dealt with.

She says “men still run the world and I’m not sure it’s going that well.”

Sandberg, the only woman on a panel of six, also said Facebook will use its “Safety Check” more regularly in the future when necessary.

During the Paris attacks in November, the feature was used widely by people wanting to tell their friends and families they were OK. Originally intended for natural disasters, the feature was also used widely in April’s devastating earthquake in Nepal.

The head of the International Chamber of Commerce says China is the source of major worries for global business this year — but also on “everyone’s investment list.”

In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press in Davos, Switzerland, John Danilovich said “China is weighing heavily on everyone’s mind.”

Yet despite its slowdown, he said China and the United States are the two countries that businesses in general are looking to for growth.

He said the year so far has already been “very disturbing and very unsettling” for business leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum.

The uncertainty is not just about shaky markets. Among challenges ahead, he said, are how companies can cope with the challenges of robotics and ever-expanding technology, and how to adapt business decisions to the lower carbon emissions promised in a global climate agreement reached by world governments last year.

The executive director of Oxfam International says ordinary people are losing faith in their political leaders and see them “as being in a cosy bed with business and cheating the ordinary person.”

Increasingly, Winnie Byanyima says, average citizens are looking for solutions that are “outside the mainstream of politics.” She spoke in the week that Oxfam published a report showing that just 62 people owned as much wealth as half of humanity, down from 80 in a similar report a year before.

In an interview with The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, Byanyima said Oxfam will assess whether it will attend such events in the future, if nothing is done to combat the problems of inequality that Oxfam is fighting. Byanyima co-chaired last year’s Davos gathering, and Oxfam is among several NGOs involved in forum activities.

The plunge in oil prices is a growing threat to the world’s goal to reduce emissions through the increase in renewable energies.

The head of the International Energy Agency, which advises oil-importing countries, said Wednesday that the drop in costs for oil and gas threatens to reduce governments’ incentives to improve energy efficiency — in their transportation networks, for example — as well as the installation of renewable energy plants.

Fatih Birol says that energy efficiency has been driven largely not so much by environmental concerns but an interest in saving money, which is disappearing as fossil fuels become cheaper.

World countries agreed in December to limit the rise in global temperatures, a move that will require a ramp-up in the amount of energy that comes from renewable energy.

Birol warned a panel of energy experts gathered in Davos: “For renewables, life will not be easy.”

Related articles across the web

• Why an MBA Does Not Impress Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg
• What Sheryl Sandberg Would Have Told Her Younger Self
• Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg says you don't need an MBA to be successful in tech
• Sheryl Sandberg opens up about "hardest year of my life"
• TechCrunch Is Going To Davos
• Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg reveals the two quotes that influence how she spends her time (FB)
• Sheryl Sandberg Says an MBA Doesn't Matter in Tech - Bloomberg
• Facebook & Lean In's Sheryl Sandberg on How Everyone Can Promote Diversity
• Apple names Jeff Williams as chief operating officer
• Apple names Jeff Williams as COO