J. Michael Evans, the president of the Alibaba Group, boasted to an audience at the WEF that the Chinese conglomerate was developing an “individual carbon footprint tracker” to help people reduce their emissions.
Evans, a Canadian technology executive who manages the Alibaba Group’s international growth strategy, made the comments at the WEF on Tuesday morning, revealing that the company was developing a method to let people track their own carbon footprint.
“What does that mean? That’s, where are they traveling, how are they traveling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on the platform,” Evans said. “So individual carbon footprint tracker. Stay tuned, we don’t have it operational yet, but this is something that we’re working on.”
Alibaba Group president J. Michael Evans boasts at the World Economic Forum about the development of an "individual carbon footprint tracker" to monitor what you buy, what you eat, and where/how you travel. pic.twitter.com/sisSrUngDI
— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) May 24, 2022
According to a blog post from March, the company has already developed a platform that has been tested in various schools and communities in China, that is designed to “encourage people to adopt low-carbon behaviours and be environmentally accountable.”
For example, the individual carbon footprint tracker technology suggested that people would receive “credits” when making choices such as licking your plate clean, or choosing to take the subway instead of other forms of transport, actions which are worth 200 and 554 credits respectively.
Photo Credit: Alibaba Group
Alibaba claims that over 1,492 communities and companies have used their platform, allegedly saving rougly 394,000 tons of carbon emissions. 589 residents of the Shenzhen neighbourhood of Xinqiao Shiju have saved almost 38 tons through monitoring electricity, water and gas use. No calculations were provided.
Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance criticised the move from Alibaba, pointing out the hypocrisy of Evans.
“Imagine flying a private jet to a conference of the world’s most powerful people and then lecturing other people on their carbon footprint,” Vance tweeted.
Imagine flying a private jet to a conference of the world’s most powerful people and then lecturing other people on their carbon footprint. https://t.co/4YYg3laXRo
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) May 24, 2022
Valiant News reported on Monday that Julie Inman Grant, the Australian eSafety Commissioner, told the WEF that key human rights, such as free speech, must be subject to “recalibration” in relation to how they are “playing out online.”
Following publication of the article, the Twitter account that published the video clip of Inman Grant was banned by the Big Tech site.
