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Agenda 21 is a set of hopeful guidelines for environmental action and social justice established by the United Nations in 1992 at a conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[1] It sets out a variety of goals for public policy at all levels and for civic action by non-governmental organizations. These include fair trade practices, sustainable energy and urban development (i.e. more efficient zoning), and debt reduction for the developing world. Like most such sets of guidelines, it was happily agreed upon and happily ignored for many years, except for ne'er-do-wells like Sweden.[2]
Agenda 21 was frequently cited by conspiracy theorists, such as the John Birch Society, during the 1990s as a purported blueprint for implementing the New World Order and population control, then forgotten by them for a number of years. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, several conspiracy theorists again brought up and repopularized the general idea. The most well-known among them may be Glenn Beck and David Icke. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a variety of people have latched on to the repopularizing of the idea, often in connection with denialism and scaremongering concerning the COVID-19 vaccines.
The flaw with any vigorous political opposition to Agenda 21 is that "the U.S. government and no state or local government is legally bound by the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty," as the Republican National Committee (RNC) – the governing body of one of the two major American parties – accurately asserted in a 2012 resolution even as they officially condemned Agenda 21.[3] Accordingly, it makes no sense to demand that it be repudiated: you can argue with it on the merits of what it recommends, but it's silly to savage a set of recommendations for merely daring to exist. It's tantamount to mounting a bombastic attack on the Food and Leisure section of your local paper just because you disagreed with a food critic's opinion of a restaurant: you might want a different columnist or different recommendations or even a different section editor, but attacking the section for its audacity in existing makes you seem like a raving lunatic.
Outside the US, Agenda 21 is moderately known among "Green" types and there are even some local groups that want to implement Agenda 21 and pressure local and federal politics in that direction.[4] Apart from those groups and those dealing with them, basically nobody has ever heard about Agenda 21 nor cares about it — except conspiracy theorists and those who listen to them.
In 2012, an "exposé" by former Fox News host Glenn Beck seized upon Agenda 21 as an attempt by radical Nazi communist internationalist homosexuals[note 1] to "put their fangs into our communities and suck all the blood out of it, we will not be able to survive."[5] This began an onslaught of paranoia that has continued ever since, with even such high-level American institutions as the Republican National Committee (RNC) officially condemning Agenda 21 as "a comprehensive plan of extreme environmentalism, social engineering, and global political control."[3] The general consensus among a certain segment of the American conservative movement seems to be that socialists and tree-huggers are using Agenda 21 as a template for an insidious contamination of all levels of society.[note 2] And our precious bodily fluids, no doubt.
A 2010 talk by David Icke,[7] uploaded to YouTube in 2016,[8] covers Icke's main ideas on Agenda 21 along with various conspirituality themes, and has played a part in popularizing a version of the conspiracy theory (its broadening of popularity later extending to COVID-19 denialists,[9] of which Icke also became one). Icke claims that Agenda 21 is a Trojan horse for world fascism, which uses concern for the environment as an excuse to justify de-industrialization, the end of democracy, a drastic culling of the world population, and more. He further compares its implementation with "a version of The Hunger Games".
Icke also connects it all to various other of his ideas, e.g. about secret societies (tied to a great Satanic conspiracy), chemtrails, weather modification used as a weapon against the people (to target farmers and rural populations so that big corporations can gain control of everything), and a planned grand economic collapse.
A newer UN agenda from 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development[10] (also referred to as Agenda 2030) has goals of a nature basically similar to those of the older Agenda 21. Far-fetched claims of a similar kind about the meaning of the text by conspiracy theorists have also been made similarly to those for Agenda 21. Indeed, the two agendas have come to be mentioned together in some conspiracy theories, viewed as part of the same conspiracy, and mentions of the newer 2030 Agenda have sometimes replaced mentions of Agenda 21 altogether.
For example, one depopulation conspiracy theory has it that the Luciferan nature of Agenda 2030 includes that Goal 12, "Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns", is really a plan to exterminate six billion people worldwide. Nothing is quoted from the actual text for Goal 12 beyond the headline to back that up, and there is nothing in it to quote to back up such a claim. Quoted below, the actual text of Goal 12 is rather less exciting.
Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
12.1 Implement the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, all countries taking action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries
12.2 By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
12.3 By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses
12.4 By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
12.5 By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
12.6 Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle
12.7 Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities
12.8 By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
12.a Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production
12.b Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
12.c Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the repopularized Agenda 21 conspiracy theory, in various variations including Icke's, has grown popular among anti-vaxxers and others viewing the pandemic as fake or a "plandemic" used as an excuse for a descent into totalitarianism and more.[9]