Is COP27's image dented with sponsor Coca-Cola being top plastic polluter?

UN climate conference COP27 has come under intense scrutiny as The Coca-Cola Company jumped on board as one of its sponsors. Adding to its owes, the brand has once again been named the worst plastic polluter for five years running by a global brand audit report by ‘Break Free From Plastic’. PepsiCo and Nestlé took up the other two spots in the top 3 list of international plastic polluters.

The sponsorship deal with UN saw many protestors describing the sponsorship of the summit as a “greenwashing” initiative by Coca-Cola. A petition is already running on change.org to call for an end of the partnership and corporate sponsorship talks, starting with the removal of Cola-Cola.

According to a post by Greenpeace last year, activists around the world are protesting loudly as for decades, Coca-Cola and other consumer goods companies have relied on the myth of recycling to avoid responsibility for this pollution.

"They have played up recycled content as a way to continue using harmful single-use plastics, and put the onus on all of us to clean up their trash, while refusing to recognise that their plastic problem is beyond being solved by recycling or clean up initiatives," said an article on Greenpeace's blog.

Activists such as Von Hernandez, global coordinator, Break Free From Plastic, said instead of allowing companies such as Coke to greenwash their image, governments need to compel polluters to invest in reuse and alternative product delivery systems that avoid the problem in the first place.

"This is one of the key systemic changes required for the world to avert the full consequences of climate change and plastic pollution. Governments worldwide now have the justification and opportunity to effectively address and reverse the plastic pollution crisis by coming up with a global plastics treaty that cuts plastic production, makes corporations accountable for the pollution they are causing and mainstreams reuse-based alternatives," said Hernandez

Froilan Grate, Asia Pacific regional coordinator, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, said the recent brand audit is once again showing who the real polluters are. "These companies are falling short of their promises, but we are not reducing our commitment to advocate for zero waste."

Nonetheless, the reality of events and conferences remains that sponsorship dollars are a key component. "With all of this news, the world’s foremost climate change conference has to support itself with corporate sponsorship as if it was the World Cup is unfortunate, but commercially unavoidable," explained Graham Hitchmough, regional chief operations officer, The Bonsey Design. Nonetheless, the selection of sponsorship partners and supporters must be carefully considered and justifiable in the context of the overarching vision, and targets of the event itself.

“It is essential that any organisation seen to be contributing significantly to the issues, and contributing to global climate change, are engaged and included within the event rather than marginalised. However, the details and the optics of how this engagement is managed, must be carefully considered,” he said. In light of this, the way in which Coca-Cola's supporter status to the event has been handled has actively invited criticism.

“This is not helpful to any of the parties involved and suggests that a more thoughtful, thought-through and sensitive strategy for engaging and communicating Coca-Cola’s role as an organisation with a critical role to play in addressing aspects of climate change would have been preferable,” he added.

The association with Coca-Cola will undoubtedly impact the image of the COP27 event in a group of people’s minds who had placed hope in the event being able to effect change. However, given the track record from past events, its image was already on shaky grounds, said Charlotte Teo, brand consultant and former global marketing director at plant-based chicken brand TiNDLE.

“I believe the sponsorship by Coca-Cola was a big brand mindset of making a splash. Choose the most prominent event regarding climate change and be a present brand. And hopefully change the mindset that even though their bottles have been labelled as the largest contributor of plastic pollution, they are making a change,” said Teo.

“It’s been labelled as greenwashing because this isn’t how sustainable brands behave. Sustainable brands such as Patagonia - walk the talk.”