Jack McPherrin: A WEF-Sponsored, Unified, and Global ESG System Arrives in June. Time Is Almost Up to Fight It.

For good reason, the 2023 World Economic Forum (WEF), Annual Meeting in Davos has been extensively covered. Beyond providing a physical meeting location for the world’s political, economic, and technocratic elite to execute their Great Reset of the entire planet’s social and economic infrastructure, the annual summit also provides a plethora of amusing and hypocritical elements that can be—and have been—endlessly panned by critics around the world.

One example: The large utilization of private planes that led to carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to 350,000 cars in a week (2022 numbers); behind-the-scenes drama surrounding WEF Chairman and CEO Klaus Schwab’s succession planning; the Prostitutes often make heavy use Al Gore will meet attendees. Gasket blowing Threatening the world with “rain bombs”; and John Kerry’s admission that he and his friends have an “extraterrestrial plan” To save the planet is just one of many highlights. 

Other serious topics were also brought up ad nauseam, such as the future and metaverse of artificial intelligence, combating terrorism, and other important issues. “disinformation,” ensuring food security, strengthening diplomatic ties in the face of Europe’s largest land war since World War II, promoting social justice, et cetera.

However, one very concerning piece of information was not visible to the public. It was revealed by a panel called “Stewarding Responsible Capitalism.” The discussion centered around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores, and how ESG’s creators are doubling down in the face of recent staunch resistance. 

ESG scores are the key mechanism by which elites and supranational groups are boldly trying to reset global financial systems to their advantage by fundamentally altering financial risk assessment.

Essentially, ESG operates by coercing companies into adherence with politically motivated, subjective, and non-financial metrics assessing an organization’s commitment to mitigating climate change and social justice issues. Companies that refuse compliance are punished with reduced credit and capital access. Companies that comply are often rewarded for their cooperation. The full institutionalization and promotion of ESG would be a significant step towards unitary governance. This would eliminate free markets, reduce national sovereignty, and severely limit individual liberties.

According to the panel, institutionalization will be complete in four months. It is planned to force this on every corporation and small business in the world.

As I warned after last year’s meeting, ESG’s creators have been rapidly developing an ambitious unitary ESG model that will consolidate all existing models under the direction of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). In the panel’s opening minutes, Erkki Liikanen—Chairman of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation, which governs the ISSB—revealed that the ISSB “is now established, fully operational, and is actually meeting today…now the sustainability standards board is working towards the final form [of ESG standardization]. The aim is very completely that they would be able to publish, and adopt, and issue defining standards by mid this year, which means in June.”

Liikanen claims that ISSB offices are located in almost all major jurisdictions including the United States of America, Canada, Europe, Japan, China, and the European Union.

Brian Moynihan (Bank of America Chairman and Chief Executive Officer) was a panelist. He expressed more direct views, saying that “we don’t want [disclosure] to be unofficial. We want it to be official…and then frankly, an investment manager, a consumer, society, others, can sit there and say: here’s a line that is acceptable…If you’re below it, we shouldn’t do business with you.”

This is a crucial admission. ESG disclosures are voluntary in the United States. However, the SEC is being pressured to make them mandatory. Under the ISSB, disclosures would be mandatory, and the ISSB’s jurisdiction would theoretically envelop the United States.

Further, the panelists make clear this is no longer an effort aimed primarily at large, multinational corporations—they are coming for small businesses as well. Moynihan responded to a panel moderator when he was asked how small and medium-sized companies could be integrated into the ESG fold. “That’s why you had to go away from informal standard setting and other things to make it part of the official accounting practice…because once you do that then everybody is subject to it… so a net-zero commitment by a big company will drive the supply chain, but if they don’t have to disclose it, they can hide for a while… this doesn’t let you do that.”

Moynihan, his elites, and others want small companies to comply with their top-down pressure. Small companies that don’t conform will be removed and eventually made redundant.

The most striking example of the confidence these elites operate with was when the moderator inquired if recent anti-ESG protests in the United States were cause for concern.

Moynihan smugly answered: “No, because our companies have been around for almost 240 years…these great institutions we all sit behind, they will be here through government and changes…the politics ebb and flow…”

Moynihan, along with his fellow oligarchs, seems to believe that they are above democratic processes. They have been operating under the oversight of elected officials, even though he was correct until recently. Now that democratic institutions are involved, ESG’s overseers believe they can succeed in the face of that threat.

We must prove them wrong, by enacting anti-ESG legislation at the state—and eventually, federal—levels of government, while educating as much of the public as possible about the dangers of such a system. Although most anti-ESG legislation was sponsored by Republicans almost all of them should not be seen as another partisan issue. This is not a battle between liberal and conservative ideologies. It is a struggle for freedom against tyranny. Anyone who believes in democracy and individual freedoms—be they Republicans, Democrats, or Independents—must join the fight to put ESG where it belongs, in the ash heap of history.

Jack McPherrin ([email protected]) The Heartland Institute’s research editor.

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