World Economic Forum Doubles Down on Climate and ESG, Lets Embattled Ex-Leader Off Hook

Even before President Donald Trump’s reelection, investors were leaving the woke environmental, social, and governance agenda like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Yet, those rats appear to have a few life rafts remaining, and the World Economic Forum seems intent on shoring up the ESG agenda.

The World Economic Forum is a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream. The Forum hosts the annual Davos gathering of world leaders in Switzerland. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the forum’s founder and chairman, Klaus Schwab, wrote “COVID-19: The Great Reset,” a manual for using the pandemic crisis to upend all of society.

The Forum also promoted the prediction “You will own nothing and be happy.”

This nonprofit organization, supported by 1,000 member multinational companies, represents the woke managerial elite. The World Economic Forum supports the claims that climate change poses a catastrophic threat to humanity, that institutions must be altered to root out “systemic racism,” and that society must be upended to kowtow to the demands of men who claim to identify as women and vice versa. It uses the notion of “stakeholder capitalism” to say that a company’s goal isn’t just to provide a return on investment for shareholders, but to make the world a better—read “more woke”—place.

The elites pushing these agendas brand those who disagree as “reactionary” or “hateful.”

Yet, the World Economic Forum faced its own problems. Whistleblowers filed a complaint after the Wall Street Journal published an investigation claiming the Forum’s culture was hostile to female and black employees.

Schwab, the founder, stepped down in April amid an investigation into claims he had misused Forum funds.

The WEF’s Botched Opportunity

This turmoil may have represented an opportunity for the World Economic Forum to chart a new course, rejecting its woke bureaucratic mentality and listening to the worldwide populist movement. It’s not just Trump: Populism is growing in France, Germany, Portugal, Poland, the Netherlands, and beyond.

Businesses are also rejecting ESG. A host of companies have pulled out of the Corporate Equality Index maintained by the Human Rights Campaign, which has acted like a kind of LGBTQ mafia. Corporate America is outwardly rejecting the language of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” after Trump rightly issued executive orders interpreting racial quotas as a form of illegal discrimination.

Yet the World Economic Forum is rejecting the anti-woke trend.

Not only did the Forum give its founder an outgoing commendation, but it also tapped the man who has long been the face of the ESG movement to help steer the ship.

In a statement Friday, the Forum said it concluded “there is no substantial evidence of material wrongdoing” from Schwab or his wife, Hilde Schwab.

“Minor irregularities, stemming from blurred lines between personal contributions and Forum operations, reflect deep commitment, rather than intent of misconduct,” the World Economic Forum concluded.

It also announced that Peter Brabeck-Letmanthe, a former chief executive of Nestle who served as the interim chairman of the board, would be stepping down.

Two men replaced him as co-chairs of the board: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Swiss billionaire André Hoffmann.

The Face of ESG

Fink has long been the face of ESG. Under his leadership, BlackRock committed to the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative in March 2021, pledging to offset its greenhouse gas emissions completely by 2050. His 2021 letter praised as “protests for racial justice” the Black Lives Matter protests that had devolved into riots in the summer of 2020. He said, “No organization is immune from the challenges posed by racial bias.”

Fink has attempted to walk back some of this activism in recent years, as his firm faced backlash not just from conservatives, but from state treasurers who moved to withdraw state investment funds from BlackRock.

As far back as 2023, Fink stopped using the term ESG, claiming it had been “weaponized.” BlackRock deleted DEI statements in its latest annual report. The company exited the Net Zero Asset Managers coalition earlier this year, while claiming that the move would not alter “the way we develop products and solutions for clients or how we manage their portfolios.”

BlackRock is not giving up on climate alarmism, however. It has shifted from ESG to “transition investing,” directing funds to companies that aim to operate using smaller amounts of carbon-based fuel.

Furthermore, BlackRock still has a 100% score with the Human Rights Campaign. If Fink were truly committed to leaving ESG in the past, BlackRock would separate from the Human Rights Campaign and abandon climate alarmism.

Another Climate Alarmist

Like Fink, Hoffmann has embraced the “stakeholder capitalism” model and combined it with climate alarmism.

The drug company Roche Holding, where Hoffman serves as vice chairman, published an interview with Hoffman in 2022 titled “No one can deny the existence of climate change.” In that interview, Hoffman said, “Roche employees have to know that we aren’t here just to make money; we are here to help people in a sustainable, lasting way,” such that the company grows “in harmony with nature and society.”

As the world increasingly moves on from ESG, the World Economic Forum is doubling down. The woke movement may be on the outs for now, but the threat it poses isn’t going away anytime soon.

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