Dive Brief:
- Morgan Stanley has eschewed a 2030 goal to facilitate 50 million metric tons of plastic pollution prevention, removal or reduction, the bank confirmed to ESG Dive Thursday. The goal was absent from the 2023 sustainability report the financial institution released Wednesday.
- A Morgan Stanley spokesperson said it will no longer track financing of plastic waste-related activities as a standalone, due to “challenges in the availability and quality of data needed to meet [its] disclosure standards.” Bloomberg first reported the goal’s absence Thursday.
- Climate disclosure regulations coming into effect — both in the U.S. and abroad — are increasing the level of scrutiny on companies’ environmental and sustainability targets. Meanwhile, no industry or country has yet developed and enforced universal accounting standards for plastic disclosures, according to an analysis by Ernst & Young.
Dive Insight:
Morgan Stanley first set its goal to finance plastic pollution reduction in 2019. The firm said in its 2022 sustainability report that it will have facilitated the prevention, reduction or removal of approximately 14 million metric tons of plastic and the environment by 2030. A link to the bank’s webpage outlining the pledge and work towards it is no longer active.
Though the bank will no longer seek to track its plastic reduction financing separately, a spokesperson said the company will track plastic waste reduction activities as part of its existing 2030 goal to mobilize $1 trillion in sustainable finance.
“Plastic waste remains a sustainability focus for Morgan Stanley,” the spokesperson told ESG Dive in an emailed statement. “We continue to work with clients and partners to finance solutions across the plastic value chain as part of our [sustainable finance] commitment.”
The firm mentioned “plastic waste” just twice in the sustainability report released Sept. 4 — down from 11 such mentions in the 2022 edition.
Plastic waste solutions are listed among “other environmental solutions,” in low-carbon and green solutions that count towards Morgan Stanley’s sustainable finance goal. The bank reported it had mobilized over $820 billion in capital as part of its $1 trillion target, including $640 billion for low-carbon and green solutions.
Plastic waste comes up again under themes that Morgan Stanley’s investment management arm engages with companies on. The firm lists “circular economy and waste reduction” as one of five ESG-related topics the bank’s investment arm engages with companies on. Morgan Stanley said engagement on the topic is designed to support “business models that reduce impact on natural resources” and innovate in waste reduction, particularly plastic waste, according to the 2023 report.
Despite dropping the goal, the bank helped facilitate a pair of $500 million green bonds last year that will, in part, help finance the circular economy and pollution reduction efforts.
Morgan Stanley served as lead bookrunner on one of these $500 million green bond funds, launched by U.S. chemical manufacturer LyondellBasell in May 2023, to fund circular economy products, technology and processes; pollution prevention and control; renewable energy and energy efficiency, the bank’s spokesperson confirmed.
That fund launch followed another $500 million green bond launched in March 2023 by Eastman, another U.S. chemical company. Morgan Stanley served as a joint manager of the books for the Eastman fund, according to the spokesperson, which will also finance pollution prevention and circular economy products, processes and technologies.
