Daughter of WEF founder did not warn that permanent climate lockdowns are coming

CLAIM: The daughter of World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab said in a roundtable discussion that, “permanent climate lockdowns are coming, whether people like it or not.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A video used to support the claim contains no such comment. The fabricated quote came from a website known for publishing false news.

THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a headline that contains a fabricated quote attributed to Nicole Schwab, daughter of founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum – an organization best known for hosting an annual conference of business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

“Klaus Schwab’s Daughter: ‘Permanent Climate Lockdowns Coming – Whether You Like It or Not,’” reads the headline in The People’s Voice, previously known as News Punch, a website that has published false and misleading information. A disclaimer under the website’s terms of use states that its content may not be accurate.

A screenshot of the headline was shared on multiple platforms including Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter.

The People’s Voice’s story with the headline cited a video of a panel discussion about climate change. The story falsely claims the video shows she “made the admission.”

However, in the video used to support the claim, Schwab, the co-head for Nature-Based Solutions within the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate, made no mention of “climate lockdowns.” Trevor Chueu, a spokesperson with the WEF, confirmed to The Associated Press in an email that Schwab has not warned of a “climate lockdown.”

The video used by The People’s Voice shows a panel discussion where Schwab explains that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed problems in the world when confronted with a global emergency. Chueu confirmed Schwab was invited to be a speaker at the roundtable.

The video was from a panel discussion hosted by InTent, an organization focused on specific issues, including sustainability, and connects policymakers and business leaders.

The organization uploaded the full two-minute clip on it’s website and titled the video, “The Urgency of a Global Green Transition – with Nicole Schwab.” The video was filmed in June 2020 and was part of a panel discussion with other business leaders.

In the clip, Schwab never uses the term “climate lockdown,” nor does she warn of lockdowns. Instead, she emphasizes the point that the pandemic was an opportunity to prioritize actions to fight climate change by creating new policies in businesses and the economy.

“This crisis has shown us that, first of all, things can shift very rapidly when we put our minds to it and when we feel the immediate emergency to our livelihoods. And, second, that clearly the system, I mean you mention it earlier, that we had before is not sustainable,” Schwab said.

She then references the “Great Reset” initiative, which is a broad proposal promoted by WEF since 2020 to reimagine social and economic systems. The initiative has long been the subject of conspiracy theories. The initiative has nothing to do with “climate lockdowns,” Chueu said.

“So I see it as a tremendous opportunity to really, to have this Great Reset and to use the huge flows of money, to use the increased levers that policymakers have today in a way that was not possible before, to create a change that is not incremental, but that we can look back and we can say,” said Schwab in the video. “This is the moment where we really started to position nature at the core of the economy.”

The term “climate lockdown” has been a subject of conspiracy theories in the past on social media, including misrepresenting a traffic reduction plan, falsely claiming it was a “climate lockdown.”

The People’s Voice did not return AP’s request for comment.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.