BP and Spotify bought carbon credits at risk of link to forced Uyghur labour in China
- Media Manager
- Nov 13, 2023
- 1 min read
Updated: Nov 15, 2023
The Guardian
Written By: Patrick Greenfield, Amy Hawkins and Manisha Ganguly
Published: November 13th, 2023
BP and Spotify were among companies who bought carbon credits at risk of being implicated in potential Uyghur forced labour, an investigation has found.
The credits were sourced from the Bachu carbon project, which was developed by South Pole, the world’s largest carbon consultancy. The project focussed on a biomass power plant in Xinjiang, China, which said it would lower global carbon emissions by using waste cotton stalks from nearby fields to generate electricity.
South Pole, whose chief executive, Renat Heuberger, stood down on Friday, marketed credits for their employment benefits for women and minority ethnic people and support for the UN sustainable development goals, with the claims often echoed by companies that bought them to offset their carbon footprints. In the advertising literature for the Bachu project, the company said the scheme involved “local farmers who collect cotton stalks and burn them to generate carbon neutral power. This activity both creates sustainable electricity and creates an additional income stream for rural people in the project area, boosting the local economy.”
