As the World Economic Forum (WEF) comes to a wrap, True North has been reporting on some of the most radical proposals the elites in attendance have championed.
WEF panels on a range of topics from climate change to the metaverse have revealed some startling and controversial projects, including an individual carbon tracker and global surveillance for viral outbreaks.
“The problem with the World Economic Forum isn’t that it’s some shadowy cabal secretly pulling the strings of world leaders,” True North senior journalist Andrew Lawton said from Davos, where he’s covering the WEF’s annual meeting. “The organization is quite open about its agenda to phase out oil and gas, ‘recalibrate’ free speech, and push for social credit-style carbon emissions tracking.”
1. An “individual carbon footprint” to track travel and what you eat
One of the most explosive announcements at WEF was by the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba. Canadian-born Alibaba Group president J. Michael Evans told attendees that his company was currently developing an “individual carbon footprint tracker” to track what consumers are eating and how they are getting around.
“We’re developing through technology an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint,” said Evans. “What does that mean? Where are they traveling? How are they traveling? What are they eating? What are they consuming on the platform?”
2. Global surveillance system to detect future outbreaks
On a panel related to pandemics, Illumina Inc CEO Francis deSouza suggested that we should implement a “global surveillance infrastructure” to detect future viral outbreaks.
“We now know that we are only as strong as the weakest among us so we need a global surveillance infrastructure. The good news is, as we’re deploying this infrastructure around the world, it provides infrastructure not just to fight future pandemics, not just to fight future pathogen outbreaks, but also to help countries deal with other diseases like cancer,” said deSouza.
3. A “recalibration” of freedom of speech
Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant called for a “recalibration” of human rights to counter polarization online.
“We are finding ourselves in a place where we have increasing polarization everywhere and everything feels binary when it doesn’t need to be so I think we’re going to think of a recalibration of a whole range of human rights that are playing out online,” said Grant. “You know from freedom of speech to the freedom to be free from online violence.”
4. Green transition inflation and energy shortages are “worth it”
On the topic of businesses, Norwegian financial services giant DNB ASA CEO Kjerstin Braathen told attendees that the pain caused by transitioning to sustainable forms of energy would be worth it. Braathen cited inflation and energy shortages as examples of those pains.
“We need to accept that there will be some pain in the process,” she said. “The pace that we need will open up for missteps. It will open up for shortage of energy, it will create inflationary pressures, and we need to start talking about that.”
5. Central bank digital currencies within five years
A panel composed of central bankers and finance executives cheerily discussed introducing central bank digital currencies within five years.
6. UN regulation and passports for the metaverse
While discussing the metaverse and Web 3.0, United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Sultan Al Olama proposed UN regulation of the internet and for companies to require passports to access different metaverse platforms.
“There needs to be a conversation at the level of the United Nations, the ITU or these non-governmental bodies where a certain standard is set. That standard is set on the internet to a large extent,” said Al Olama.
7. People in power should prevent laws opposing gender ideology
CEO of The Trevor Project Amit Paley told WEF attendees that people in power should push back against laws targeting gender ideology, saying numerous harmful bills have been passed in various states throughout the US.
“CEOs and companies are extremely powerful, they matter a lot in every country in the world and so when we are seeing things like what we talked about – bills being passed that are targeting the most vulnerable people in our world,” said Paley. “We’re talking trans kids. We need people in positions of power. We need CEOs, we need board, we need executives, we need everyone in companies to say ‘This is wrong. This is harmful. This is unethical and we won’t stand for it.’”
8. A global 25% corporate tax rate
During a panel on tax reform, Oxfam executive director Gabriela Buncher proposed a 25% global corporate tax rate.
She also blasted countries that were lowering their tax rates to stay competitive.
