Corporate Climate Commitments Miss on Plastics, Ocean Group Says

More companies and investors need to consider plastics in their climate commitments, according to a report released last week by environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy.

The organization examined climate commitments—publicly outlined goals—from 28 companies and 12 investors, as well as 15 climate target-setting frameworks. Of those, 25 companies and 11 investors don’t account for plastics in their commitments, according to the report.

Through the analysis, Ocean Conservancy found that climate frameworks often omit emissions from plastics, even in cases where companies or investors said fossil fuels were a priority.

“There’s kind of a black box around the emissions associated with plastics,” Aarthi Ananthanarayanan, report author and Ocean Conservancy climate and plastics initiative director, said in an interview. “We’re in a period right now where there’s a ton of attention on climate-related financial risks.”

The group listed recommendations for companies to incorporate into their climate commitments, including reducing overall production and use of plastics. Ocean Conservancy encourages developing technologies and products for circular use, leading to reusing items.

“There’s a real need for innovation in the space and it’s happening at a small scale,” Ananthanarayanan said.

The report recommends against chemical recycling, a method of using incineration to resolve waste, because it produces significant greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollution. It also said that while plastic cleanups and trash collection are crucial to marine ecosystems, they do not offset plastics production.

“When plastics are produced, it creates a ton of pollution, both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and air and water emissions for local communities, so it’s important to clean it up,” Ananthanarayanan said.