Sugary COP27 Sponsor Leaves Bitter Aftertaste

Stockholm (NordSIP) – “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,” the saying goes, and it may be the only plausible explanation for the announcement on September 28, 2022 of Coca Cola as a sponsor of the 27th Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27).  Despite increasingly desperate calls to arms from the United Nations in the battle against the climate crisis, it does not really feel like the world is coming together fast enough to construct – and finance – the new low-carbon global economy that is so urgently needed.

Last year’s COP26 in Glasgow was a disappointment, with few concrete steps agreed and the watering down of coal commitments among a range of missed opportunities.  COP26 was presided over by the UK government, who in the meantime have been successfully sued over a net-zero strategy that does not add up, threatened to scrap longstanding environmental regulations and forbidden King Charles from attending COP27, despite his long history of climate campaigning and previous figurehead roles at such events.  The war in Ukraine has also resulted in an energy crisis that led to many governments reconsidering plans to move away from fossil fuels in the near-term.  Following the relative failure of COP26, all hopes were transferred to the next event, due to take place in Sharm-El Sheikh from November 6^th to 18^th this year.

As if the world needed reminding, the climate crisis is well and truly upon us.  With one third of Pakistan’s 881 thousand square kilometres under water, devastating hurricanes in the USA, temperature records falling across Europe and numerous other danger signs around the globe, there is an incalculable amount riding on the success of COP27.  The only acceptable outcome will be national commitments to be set in law, with concrete actions and regular interim targets accurately measured and reported on.  This is why the involvement of a company like Coca Cola is causing such consternation.

It comes down to the another saying: “actions speak louder than words.”  As a firm, Coca Cola is making all the right noises.  It has set Science-Based Targets to reduce carbon emission and launched its own “World Without Waste” initiative.  However, as with other companies frequenting NordSIP’s Laundromat, Coca Cola’s commitments and targets mask the reality on the ground.  In 2019, the company admitted using 3 million tonnes of plastic packaging in a single year.  This translates to well over 100 billion single use plastic bottles, many of which end up as litter despite local municipal recycling efforts.  The 2021 Break Free From Plastic brand audit, which involves hands-on examination of plastic waste across 45 countries, identified Coca Cola as the world’s worst corporate plastic polluter for the fourth year in a row.

Coke drinkers of a certain age will remember when the sugary drink was sold in glass bottles, which were collected for a deposit and reused.  The move to single use, lightweight, cheaply manufactured plastic bottles was a profit-driven move that would have meant cheaper shipping costs and the elimination of a costly bottle collection process.  The result is not only a catastrophic waste crisis, but with 99% of plastic still being made from fossil fuels, an enormous contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.  Coca Cola’s various stated environmental targets are for 2030 or 2050, but the sheer scale of the ongoing damage that they are doing requires short term, urgent change.  While it is important to keep a dialogue going, the appropriate time for Coca Cola to sponsor the world’s largest environmental conference will be when they have eliminated single-use plastics and paid to clean up the damage they have created.

Stockholm (NordSIP) – “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,” the saying goes, and it may be the only plausible explanation for the announcement on September 28, 2022 of Coca Cola as a sponsor of the 27th Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27).  Despite increasingly desperate calls to arms from the United Nations in the battle against the climate crisis, it does not really feel like the world is coming together fast enough to construct – and finance – the new low-carbon global economy that is so urgently needed.

Last year’s COP26 in Glasgow was a disappointment, with few concrete steps agreed and the watering down of coal commitments among a range of missed opportunities.  COP26 was presided over by the UK government, who in the meantime have been successfully sued over a net-zero strategy that does not add up, threatened to scrap longstanding environmental regulations and forbidden King Charles from attending COP27, despite his long history of climate campaigning and previous figurehead roles at such events.  The war in Ukraine has also resulted in an energy crisis that led to many governments reconsidering plans to move away from fossil fuels in the near-term.  Following the relative failure of COP26, all hopes were transferred to the next event, due to take place in Sharm-El Sheikh from November 6^th to 18^th this year.

As if the world needed reminding, the climate crisis is well and truly upon us.  With one third of Pakistan’s 881 thousand square kilometres under water, devastating hurricanes in the USA, temperature records falling across Europe and numerous other danger signs around the globe, there is an incalculable amount riding on the success of COP27.  The only acceptable outcome will be national commitments to be set in law, with concrete actions and regular interim targets accurately measured and reported on.  This is why the involvement of a company like Coca Cola is causing such consternation.

It comes down to the another saying: “actions speak louder than words.”  As a firm, Coca Cola is making all the right noises.  It has set Science-Based Targets to reduce carbon emission and launched its own “World Without Waste” initiative.  However, as with other companies frequenting NordSIP’s Laundromat, Coca Cola’s commitments and targets mask the reality on the ground.  In 2019, the company admitted using 3 million tonnes of plastic packaging in a single year.  This translates to well over 100 billion single use plastic bottles, many of which end up as litter despite local municipal recycling efforts.  The 2021 Break Free From Plastic brand audit, which involves hands-on examination of plastic waste across 45 countries, identified Coca Cola as the world’s worst corporate plastic polluter for the fourth year in a row.

Coke drinkers of a certain age will remember when the sugary drink was sold in glass bottles, which were collected for a deposit and reused.  The move to single use, lightweight, cheaply manufactured plastic bottles was a profit-driven move that would have meant cheaper shipping costs and the elimination of a costly bottle collection process.  The result is not only a catastrophic waste crisis, but with 99% of plastic still being made from fossil fuels, an enormous contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.  Coca Cola’s various stated environmental targets are for 2030 or 2050, but the sheer scale of the ongoing damage that they are doing requires short term, urgent change.  While it is important to keep a dialogue going, the appropriate time for Coca Cola to sponsor the world’s largest environmental conference will be when they have eliminated single-use plastics and paid to clean up the damage they have created.