Nicole Schwab, the daughter of WEF founder Klaus Schwab, said that “permanent climate lockdowns are coming whether you like it or not”.
There’s no evidence this is true. The claim appears to have come from an online article that says this “admission” was made in an “unearthed video” but the video does not show her saying this.
Several posts on social media falsely claim that Nicole Schwab, the daughter of the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Klaus Schwab, warned that “permanent climate lockdowns are coming whether you like it or not”. But there is no evidence this is true.
The WEF is a global foundation headquartered in Switzerland that seeks to influence government and business leaders. It has become the subject of many conspiracy theories Full Fact has written about before, including that it admitted to engineering the climate, has its own paramilitary force and was involved in planning different Covid-19 variants.
False claims like this can create unnecessary alarm and distrust—it’s important to consider whether something is true before sharing it online.
Multiple posts on Facebook have almost identical text and use speech marks to suggest that Ms Schwab used the exact words: “Permanent climate lockdowns coming… whether you like it or not”
Another post appears to quote her as having said: “Temporary covid lockdowns and restrictions will be replaced by permanent climate lockdowns”.
However, there is no evidence that Ms Schwab, who sits on WEF’s Executive Committee, said either of these things. Full Fact has not been able to find any reliable reports of her saying this.
The claim appears to have come from an article published by a blog called The People’s Voice with the headline: “Klaus Schwab’s Daughter: ‘Permanent Climate Lockdowns Coming - Whether You Like It or Not’”. Several posts have shared a screenshot of this headline.
The People’s Voice is a US-based website linked to YourNewsWire which has been identified by other fact checkers as a frequent source of online misinformation. We have checked other posts on social media that originate from The People’s Voice previously.
The article says that Ms Schwab “made the admission in a newly unearthed video”. However, there’s no mention of “climate lockdowns” in the 50 second video clip of her speaking embedded in the article.
The video shows Ms Schwab at a panel discussion on ‘The Urgency of a Global Green Transition’ in Yvorne, Switzerland, in June 2020. There’s also no reference to “climate lockdowns” in a slightly longer video showing the same panel discussion.
Despite the video not showing Ms Schwab mentioning “climate lockdowns”, multiple posts on Facebook have shared the video and copied the headline and paragraphs directly from the article.
The longer version of the video shows her go on to speak about job creation, regenerative agriculture and youth engagement.
Full Fact has contacted The People’s Voice for a comment and will update the article if we receive a response.
Image courtesy of Dannel Malloy
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