Poster shared on Facebook misrepresents Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030

A post on Facebook claims that the United Nations (UN) plans to introduce a worldwide social credit system, a global military and mandatory vaccines, among other “goals”.

The post shows a photo of a man with a poster that lists 22 alleged “goals” under the title “UN Agenda 21-2030”. The poster also implies that the World Economic Forum (WEF) is involved in these goals, with the organisation’s logo shown at the bottom of the poster. 

Other items on the poster include “government raised children”, the “end [to] private transportation” and the “end of private farms, livestock and irrigation”. 

While Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030 do exist, there is no evidence that either include plans to implement any of the things on the list. 

Full Fact has written many times before about similar false claims relating to these agendas, including that Agenda 2021 is a depopulation plan presided over by Prince William, Agenda 2030 will force people to eat insects and that it planned the pandemic in order to enslave humanity. 

Claims like these can spread quickly online and be difficult to contain. They can cause unnecessary fear about the future and distrust towards international organisations. 

Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030

According to the UN, Agenda 21 is a “comprehensive plan of action” to be taken on a global, national and local level by organisations (including governments) “in every area in which human impacts on the environment”. A 351-page document containing the full agenda was published in 1992 following an agreement at a UN conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It includes a number of proposals with the hope of “preparing the world for the challenges of the next century”. This includes “combating poverty”, “management of resources”, “strengthening the roles of major groups”, such as women and indigenous communities, and implementing “science for sustainable development”.

In the Facebook post, Agenda 21 is conflated with another UN plan devised in 2015 to help the organisation achieve its sustainable development goals by 2030, known as Agenda 2030. The agreement was signed by more than 150 world leaders and covers 17 objectives, such as reducing inequality and ending world hunger. 

There is no evidence that either plan mandates for items listed in the Facebook post. Full Fact searched the full documents of both Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030 for the terms on the list. Terms such as “cashless”, “family unit”, “global military”, “settlement zones”, “universal basic income”, “microchipped”, “5G monitoring” and “world credit system” do not appear in either document. 

Agenda 21 refers to improving “central banking” in developing countries on a national level, rather than “one global central bank”. It also speaks about improving curriculums for vocational and technical schools, as well as promoting environmental and health education in schools generally—but it does not say anything about government-owned or controlled schools.

Agenda 2030 does not refer to either central banking or school curriculums. 

Both agendas show no intention to limit the ownership of private property, land or businesses as the poster says. 

Agenda 21 explicitly says it aims to “encourage the private sector and foster entrepreneurship by improving institutional facilities for enterprise creation and market entry.” It does talk about managing land resources, but notes that “private property rights […] should be taken into account.”

Agenda 2030 states the need for equal rights to “ownership and control over land and other forms of property” and acknowledges “the role of the diverse private sector [...] in the implementation of the new Agenda.”

Both plans also refer to the development of accessible and sustainable public transport, but they do not call for an end to private transport. Similarly, while they both support the implementation of vaccine programmes around the world, neither suggests that vaccinations should be mandatory.

As we have written before, Agenda 21 does outline the stress a growing population places on earth’s resources, but Full Fact could find no reference to actively reducing the world’s population. 

Moreover, not only is there no evidence that the agendas plan to implement the items on the list—neither plan is legally binding.

An article by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a US nonprofit legal advocacy group, says Agenda 21 “has no force of law, no enforcement mechanisms, no penalties, and no significant funding” while Agenda 2030 has also been called a “social contract”. 

Is the WEF involved?

In 2019, the WEF and UN signed a partnership intended to “accelerate the implementation of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development”. 

The two bodies identified priority areas for collaboration, including climate change, health and gender equality, among others. The partnership framework says it envisions the organisations helping “each other increase their outreach, to share networks, communities, knowledge and expertise”. 

Full Fact has written before about similar false claims relating to WEF’s ‘Great Reset’ initiative, which has formed the basis of many conspiratorial ideas about powerful organisations restricting what you can eat or own, or using the situation in Ukraine to launch a social credit app. 

Image courtesy of Dati Bendo