At talks on cutting plastics pollution, plastic credits are on the table. What are they?
- Media Manager
- Nov 17, 2023
- 1 min read
AP
Written By: Carlos Mureithi and Jennifer McDermott
Published: November 17th, 2023
Two groups that want reduced plastics production published a report Friday highly critical of plastic credits, calling them a flawed tool that won’t help with worldwide pollution from the material.
The groups — Break Free From Plastic and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives — said the credits often amount to corporate greenwashing. They issued their report in Nairobi on the sidelines of United Nations-led negotiations for a treaty aimed at cutting plastics pollution.
The report looks at two prominent proponents of plastic credits, Verra and the Plastic Credit Exchange marketplace. Break Free From Plastic analyzed publicly available databases of Verra, and shared analysis of the Plastic Credit Exchange marketplace by non-profit investigative journalism organization SourceMaterial.
Their report cited “serious flaws” in financing, transparency and basic auditing, and said credits being issued for plastic incinerated in cement kilns were substituting one form of pollution for another.
Verra, the world’s leading certifier of carbon offsets, said at an event alongside the talks that plastic credits can be a tool for mobilizing the money needed to tackle plastic pollution.
“The finance associated with the treaty is near as important as its ambition,” Kristen Linscott, senior program officer for plastics policy and markets at Verra, said in a presentation. “Without the proper funding mechanisms and tools, even the most ambitious treaty won’t deliver its promised impact.”
