Greenpeace Calls On UN To Reject Corporate Sponsors Like Coca-Cola From Climate Talks

Greenpeace is calling for corporate sponsors to be kept out of United Nations (UN) international climate talks.

The call comes after Coca-Cola, the world’s worst plastic polluter, was named as a sponsor of next month’s COP27 climate conference.

Greenpeace has launched a global petition calling for COPs to be free from corporate sponsorship, especially from the world’s top polluters like Coca-Cola. Overnight the petition has already gained over 3,700 signatures.

"Big polluters like Coke have prioritised quick profits over the collective wellbeing of all people, and our planet," Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Juressa Lee says.

"Communities around the world that have contributed the very least to both the climate and plastic crises are paying the highest price - with their lives and livelihoods. These are the voices that should be amplified at COP, not the polluters responsible for causing these crises."

Lee says "Coca-Cola already knows that the problem is that too much plastic is being produced, and the only solution is to stop making it, and shift back to refill and reuse systems. They know how to do this because they used to."

Coca-Cola produces 120 billion throwaway plastic bottles a year - and 99 percent of plastics are made from fossil fuels, worsening both the plastic and climate crises.

"Plastic is killing wildlife like the toroa and has entered the food chain. It has also been discovered in our bodies, our blood and even our breast milk. Plastic pollution threatens sovereign diets and fresh water access for frontline communities here in the Pacific and coastlines around the world.

"Coke is a good example of a polluter that knows how they contribute to climate change and what actions they should take to do better but, instead of acting, are throwing millions of dollars at PR campaigns in an attempt to greenwash the destruction they’re causing."

"The UN needs to protect the integrity of these important meetings and not allow discussions to be derailed by industry sponsorship and influence," says Lee.

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