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2030 Plastics Agenda for Business urges corporate

collaboration

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UN Geneva talks collapse dimmed hopes for global plastic

regulation

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Commitment signatories represent 20% of global plastic

packaging

market

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Companies are talking less about sustainability in public,

Harvard study finds

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Global food and packaging

companies, including Nestle, PepsiCo ( PEP ) and

Unilever ( UL ) have vowed to collaborate on cutting plastic

use and push for regulation after U.N. talks in August

collapsed, a report published on Tuesday showed.

The failure to reach a deal at U.N. talks in Geneva dimmed

hopes of tackling a key source of pollution and left many

advocates of restrictions pessimistic about securing a global

deal while U.S. President Donald Trump is in office.

Corporate alliances seeking to limit the impact of global

warming are under pressure as the Trump administration

dismantles a range of climate protection initiatives, and though

light on concrete targets, the 2030 Plastics Agenda for

Business, published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, could

give sustainability advocates some cause for optimism.

"It is certainly encouraging to see multinationals publicly

recommit on plastics, but credibility now hinges on evidence,

not new promises," Kelly Cooper, sustainability consultant and

co-author of a Harvard study into the impact of political shifts

on corporate sustainability, told Reuters.

Cooper and co-author Neil Hawkins, a consultant and research

adviser at Harvard, wrote in the Harvard Business Review that

corporate coalitions on climate change were weakening.

A majority of the 75 companies in their study were seeking

to reduce political exposure and avoid activist backlash by

limiting public comments on sustainability progress, a strategy

known as greenhushing, they wrote.

Companies may be less keen to trumpet their sustainability

work, Rob Opsomer, executive lead for plastics at the Ellen

MacArthur Foundation, told Reuters, but the signatories to the

global commitment, which account for around 20% of worldwide

plastic packaging, tripled their use of recycled content between

2018 and 2024, far outpacing the global market.

The commitment, which calls for collaborative action between

companies, is important for driving progress and showing

policymakers over the next five years that solutions can be

scaled and that the market is ready for effective regulation,

Opsomer said.

"It's sometimes a bit of a chicken or egg situation,"

Opsomer said. "A policymaker needs to have confidence that

they're not regulating on a pipe dream."