At WEF 2022 in Davos, the president of Alibaba Group announces that the platform will rollout an individual carbon footprint tracker, along with a SaaS application for businesses to track their carbon footprints for ESG purposes.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on Tuesday, Alibaba Group president J. Michael Evans announced that the Chinese multinational e-commerce platform would soon be launching carbon footprint trackers in an attempt to change people’s shopping and travel behaviors.
The carbon footprint tracker looks to operate similarly to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) social credit system by rewarding people who “do the right thing” while punishing those who “do the wrong thing.”
“We’re developing, through technology, an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint […] That’s where they’re traveling, how they are traveling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on the platform” — J. Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group, WEF 2022
“At a billion consumers, we’re developing, through technology, an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint,” Evans told the unelected globalists at Davos during the “Strategic Outlook: Responsible Consumption” session.
“What does that mean?” he went on to say.
“That’s where they’re traveling, how they are traveling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on the platform.
“So, individual carbon footprint tracker, stay tuned! We don’t have it operational yet, but this is something we’re working on.”
“Individual carbon footprint tracker, stay tuned! We don’t have it operational yet, but this is something we’re working on” — J. Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group, WEF 2022
An individual carbon footprint tracker doesn’t have to be part of a social credit system — it can be used by shoppers and travelers simply as a way to know how much they are consuming for their own purposes, but it’s a slippery slope towards being a social crediting tool.
As Evans explained, “We have set up on our platform products that will show what are the carbon emissions if you’re buying them. So, people can look at what the carbon emission effect is of buying a certain product.”
Measuring individual carbon footprint is one thing; however, if governments mandate the tracker as a matter of policy for punishing or rewarding behavior, then it becomes yet another tool for enforcing a system of social credit.
And with Alibaba’s plans to introduce a “green travel” scheme that awards bonus points to those who comply, the Alibaba president admitted that the plan was to incentivize customers “to do the right thing,” which is the same method the CCP uses for its authoritarian social credit system.
“If they take advantage of those recommendations, we’ll give them bonus points that they can redeem elsewhere on our platform. So, they’re incentivized to do the right thing even if they were provided with the opportunity to decide to do the wrong thing” — J. Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group, WEF 2022
On the issue of “green travel,” Evans explained, “What we’re going to do is allow people to first calculate the best route, the most efficient route and also the most efficient form of transportation.
“And then if they take advantage of those recommendations, we’ll give them bonus points that they can redeem elsewhere on our platform.
“So, they’re incentivized to do the right thing even if they were provided with the opportunity to decide to do the wrong thing.”
According to Evans, “the right thing” for travelers to do is to use the routes and forms of transportation that the Alibaba algorithm recommends.
The routes may or may not be the quickest, and the platform may recommend you walk, use a bicycle, bus, or carpool, but if you don’t go along with the recommendation and decide to drive yourself, you may be doing “the wrong thing.”
Doing “the wrong thing” means you would have to pay extra or lose out on the bonus points that can only be spent on the Alibaba platform.
“The purpose of this is not to make money for Alibaba. It’s the way that we can contribute to our ESG commitments” — J. Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group, WEF 2022
The Alibaba president went on to say that the China-based company was also creating a SaaS application for businesses to track their carbon footprints for ESG purposes.
“We’re also creating a SaaS application for businesses. So each business — large business, small business — can track their carbon footprint,” said Evans.
“This is something that businesses would not normally develop themselves because it’s too expensive, but at scale for 10 million small businesses and 250 thousand brands, we can do this and we can roll this out.
“This is not about making money. The purpose of this is not to make money for Alibaba. It’s the way that we can contribute to our ESG commitments and taking 1.5 gigatons off the platform.”
“You have to help [consumers] understand how to change their behavior because we can only be agents of change if consumers are also agents of change” — Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal CEO, WEF 2022
The idea to track individual and corporate carbon footprints is all about manipulating human behavior.
During the same WEF session in Davos, L’Oréal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus referred to this type of behavioral manipulation as “consumer empowerment.”
“You have to give consumers information that allows them to make educated choices in terms of products,” said Hieronimus.
“And also you have to help them understand how to change their behavior because we can only be agents of change if consumers are also agents of change,” he added.
“There is a global price on carbon” — 8 Predictions for the World in 2030, WEF, 2016
In its “8 predictions for the World in 2030,” the WEF predicted that there would be a global price on carbon.
What would be the purpose of setting up a system to track people’s carbon footprints if it wouldn’t be used to tax or otherwise punish those who do “the wrong thing?”
Carbon footprint trackers are yet another tool in the social credit system kit.
Under China’s social credit system, citizens are given a credit score based on their online and offline behavior. It’s a system that rewards “good” behavior like spending time with the elderly while punishing “bad” behavior like protesting the government or spending too much time playing videogames.
When “trust” is broken in one area, restrictions are placed everywhere — meaning citizens who commit even minor infractions can be blacklisted from traveling, going to restaurants, renting a home, or even having insurance. This has happened to over 30 million citizens, according to Chinese State-run media.
A world-wide, interoperable social credit infrastructure is already being built thanks to corporations like Alibaba and authoritarian governments like the Chinese Communist Party.
All that is needed for the social credit system to spread globally is a political, economical, environmental, or catastrophic catalyst for public and private entities to enact it into policy.
When WEF Founder Klaus Schwab declared “Now is the time for a great reset,” in June, 2020, he explained, “The world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions.
“We must build entirely new foundations for our economic and social systems.”
Carbon footprint trackers are just another tool in the unelected globalists’ great reset agenda to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, and they can be a powerful tool for incentivizing, coercing, or otherwise manipulating human behavior when applied to systems of social credit.
