Hi folks,

Ocean Conservancy has a new report out today: Plastic is Everywhere – Except the One Place It Should Be: How Investor and Company Climate Commitments Ignore Plastic and What to Do About It.

Our review of 28 company climate commitments, 12 investor climate commitments, and 15 group climate target-setting frameworks showed that they overlook a major and growing segment of oil demand and greenhouse gas pollution: plastics.

What we learned:

• Plastics are conspicuously missing: 11 of 12 investors and 25 of 28 companies do not include plastics in their climate commitments.
• Climate target-setting guidance and frameworks often omit the greenhouse gas emissions from plastics and, in some cases, incentivize continued plastics growth. Some of this guidance even perpetuates misinformation that plastics production is a viable greenhouse gas reduction and sequestration strategy, enabling the continued build-out of plastics infrastructure.
• Investor climate commitments largely do not mention plastics even when they prioritize engagement on fossil fuels and other climate risks.
• The transparency needed to mitigate the climate impacts of plastics is lacking. For example, data on Scope 3, or greenhouse gas pollution from a company’s value chain, are only required in limited circumstances and are rarely reported in full, even though they are critical to understanding the climate risks of plastics.
• Research shows that reducing production and use of plastics and transitioning to a truly circular economy offer the most cost-effective opportunities for decarbonization.

It is time for companies and investors to address the climate risks of plastics to meet their climate goals and contribute to building a clean energy economy. To help them capitalize on this opportunity, this report includes 10 First Principles for Incorporating Plastics into Climate Commitments, a blueprint for developing strong, actionable commitments.

Please reach out to learn more and share to your networks!

Press release: https://oceanconservancy.org/news/new-ocean-conservancy-report-shows-investor-company-climate-commitments-ignore-plastics-major-growing-driver-climate-change/

Retweet: https://twitter.com/anAarthi/status/1681664730744643593?s=20

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aarthiananth_oceanclimateaction-plastics-climate-activity-7087450746136219648-opOt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

My best,

Aarthi

Aarthi Ananthanarayanan (she/her) Director, Climate and Plastics Initiative Washington, DC M: +1 203.376.4546 | Skype: Aarthi126 aarthi@oceanconservancy.org Web | Facebook | Twitter