Explore the hidden agenda behind Alipay’s carbon footprint tracker. Discover how eco-friendly incentives mask deeper governmental and corporate control over individual behaviors under the guise of environmental stewardship. Uncover the global implications of financializing the Climate Change Agenda.
A new wave of digital financial technology is silently turning daily actions into environmentally friendly points and money in the busy Chinese metropolis. One of China’s most used digital wallets, Alipay now includes a personal carbon footprint tracker. Users of this tracker get “green energy points” for low-carbon activities include public transportation or walking or using a bike. The program allows users to translate these points into actual money, therefore benefiting the surroundings as well as the user.
Underneath this apparently innocent and progressive project, nevertheless, is the groundwork for a worldwide drive to financialize the “Climate Change Agenda.” This approach gently encourages people using mobile apps to include environmentally responsible practices into their daily lives. But is there a more sneaky reason at work, or is this truly about protecting the earth?
The gamification of using human activity to fight climate change is being experimented in Asia by Alibaba, a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Developed by Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Group, Ant Forest gamifies carbon footprint tracking, allowing users to earn “green energy points” through eco-friendly behaviors, which contribute to real-world tree planting.
Prominent supporter of carbon pricing as a means of worldwide climate change action is the World Bank. Assigning a cost to carbon emissions helps to place the financial load of environmental damage back on the people. Two main forms of carbon pricing covered in international venues are carbon taxes and emissions trading systems (ETS). Particularly carbon taxes are hailed as a major source of income, supposedly to support environmental projects or offset economic effects.
Still, putting such technologies into use comes with difficulties and unexpected results. Compliance with the carbon agenda is not voluntary in China, where the government controls the people quite extensively. People are driven to follow environmentally friendly policies imposed by their government. 
Still, some have found means to game the system in a traditional display of human creativity.
One especially innovative approach is simulating walking by utilizing a phone cradle that rocks back and forth, therefore increasing their step count and generating extra green energy points. This gap draws attention to a fundamental weakness in the system: those who are forced into compliance sometimes look for means to challenge the regulations.
China’s trial with Alipay’s carbon footprint tracker is a microcosm of a more general worldwide change. It shows the change from democratic government—where individuals have power—to a regime whereby governments progressively control personal behavior. This transformation is not unique to China; it is part of a larger goal that under the cover of climate change could shortly be shared with other countries.
Tech firms all around are interested in the technology Alipay’s tracker runs on. With governments working together, this kind of monitoring might become common and turn our cellphones into tools for taxes as well as tracking. Imagine a time when every action you do—every step you take, every movement you make—is recorded and sold, and when you deviate from recommended environmentally friendly practices pays financial fines.
Although the appeal of preserving the earth is strong, we should closely examine the strategies and underlying reasons of these projects. Are we really headed toward a better future or are we caught in a complex system of income producing and control? We should be alert and critical of the ways technology is being utilized to affect our freedoms and behavior as we consider these issues.
In essence, Alipay’s carbon footprint tracker and related programs provide means for deeper, more widespread control even while they seem to encourage environmental responsibility. Governments and businesses could have hitherto unheard-of control over our life by financializing daily activities and using the climate change narrative. We must acknowledge these changes and challenge the actual cost of apparently benign technology innovations. We have to make sure our liberties are not the ultimate cost we pay as the globe speeds toward a digital future.
90% of central banks are investigating CBDC’s, as we enter 2023. They understand that CBDC’s must offer the public trust, secure and scalable system, before rolling out anything, because they get one shot with a new system.
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