Former WEF insider says climate change and ESG are ‘multi-trillion dollar scams’

Desiree Fixler, a former investment banker and ex–chief sustainability officer at Deutsche Bank, has revealed that environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks and related climate policies are based on fear-driven narratives rather than verified data.

In an interview with award-winning Canadian broadcaster Jasmin Laine, Fixler said she became a critic of ESG after working inside the system, claiming that sustainability reports and ESG-labelled financial products were marketed without sufficient evidence, accountability or reliable metrics.

She stated that she was unable to sign off on sustainability disclosures during her tenure because she believed they contained false or misleading claims, describing them as legally problematic documents.

Fixler said she previously advised the World Economic Forum (WEF) and participated in its “future councils”, arguing that the organisation operates far beyond a conference forum, with influence across governments, financial institutions, academia and legacy media.

According to Fixler, ESG and net-zero policies are being used by political and corporate leaders to shape markets, national policy and financial flows, often through fear-mongering around a claimed “climate emergency”.

She argued that these policies have contributed to higher energy prices, increased costs of living, economic contraction and expanded state surveillance, while concentrating enormous wealth and power among so-called “elites”.

Fixler also criticised carbon taxes, net-zero mandates and carbon capture requirements, saying they impose significant costs without delivering the promised economic or environmental benefits, and claimed that voters in western democracies had not explicitly approved many of these measures through democratic processes.