Why might Green Finance and Sustainable Blended Finance be needed under the Global Plastic Treaty?

By Daniel F. Akrofi

The proposed global plastic treaty currently being negotiated seeks to end plastic pollution by regulating the entire lifecycle of plastics. To end global plastic pollution and decarbonize the global plastic economy, financial flows that fuel the global plastic industry must truly be tailored towards transitioning away from the current models of economic development, consumption, and overreliance on fossil fuel-derived virgin plastics – considering that 98 percent of plastics produced globally are fossil fuel-derived. This will require a 360-degree shift from the current mode of financing in the global plastic industry that encourages overreliance on fossil-fuel feedstock to produce excessive plastics (in some cases non-recyclable plastics) to green financing aimed at ending global plastic pollution.

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Debt and green transition: An Introduction

By Tomaso Ferrando and Giedre Jokubauskaite / Debt and Green Transition blog series

This post introduces a blog series where multiple authors explore the role of debt as one of the most popular financial tools behind the ‘green transition’. Green and sustainability bonds, green microfinance, insurance and loan-enabled ‘loss and damage’ finance, are but a few of many variations of the governance logic, which uses debt to ‘green’ the economic system, while at the same time fuelling the financial and economic structures that lead to ecological destruction and a breakdown of social cohesion in the first place. If debt is so key, it must first of all be understood in its legal or financial construction and, more importantly, in the material and ideological implications that its use produces and consolidates.

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