Juno News - Executive who touted ＂carbon footprint tracker＂ now says it was just an ＂idea＂

00:00:00.000 Coming to you from the streets of Davos where the World Economic Forum's 2024 annual meeting is

00:00:05.180 underway, just inside the closed-off Davos Congress Centre, a little bit down the road from me.

00:00:11.140 One of the big things on which the World Economic Forum prides itself is being a place where big

00:00:16.320 ideas for the future are discussed. You heard in his opening remarks for the conference this year,

00:00:21.260 Klaus Schwab talk about being trustees of the future. The ideas that are discussed and debated,

00:00:27.440 although oftentimes there isn't really much of a debate in the sessions here at the annual

00:00:32.120 meeting, oftentimes feed their way into what corporations and many governments do in the

00:00:37.800 real world around us. Well, I want to go back in time a couple of years when J. Michael Levins,

00:00:43.120 who was the Canadian-born president of the Chinese Alibaba Group, was very gleefully promoting this.

00:00:50.360 We're developing through technology an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint.

00:00:57.440 What does that mean? That's where are they traveling? How are they traveling? What are they eating? What are

00:01:05.120 they consuming on the platform? So individual carbon footprint tracker. Stay tuned. We don't have it

00:01:12.580 operational yet, but this is something that we're working on. Well, that clip actually went viral.

00:01:16.960 People were very concerned about the idea of micro details about their lives being tracked and recorded

00:01:23.520 all in the name of addressing the so-called carbon footprint. Well, this year I happened to run into

00:01:29.440 J. Michael Levins on the street and I hadn't forgotten that product he was promoting, but well,

00:01:33.920 he seemed to have. Mr. Evans, Andrew Lawton with True North in Canada. A couple of years ago you were

00:01:38.560 talking about a carbon footprint tracker that Alibaba was developing and I was curious if you think that's

00:01:43.840 the way of the future.

00:01:45.200 I don't know. Something to be considered for sure. Do you think that everyone should

00:01:48.960 have their carbon footprint tracked on everything down to what they eat and where they go and what

00:01:52.880 they buy? No, of course not. Then why were you promoting it with such enthusiasm? I wasn't

00:01:57.040 promoting it. Just discussing it as an idea. It's a product you're offering, is it not? No, it's not.

00:02:01.760 Then you literally said you were developing it. Lots of things get, you know, are in development that

00:02:07.440 don't get used. Got to go. Funny how this idea he was just so excited and enthusiastic about a couple of years ago

00:02:13.200 is now just, oh, it's just something. He actually denied that he was pushing it at first until I

00:02:19.040 provided him with the receipts. Funny thing about Davos, they oftentimes don't want to defend

00:02:24.400 the ideas they are so happy to promote to each other. For True North from Davos, I'm Andrew Lawton.

Juno News - January 16, 2024