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Plastic pollution has caused significant environmental and health challenges. Corporations that contribute to the manufacture, use, and distribution of plastics can play a vital role in addressing global plastic pollution and many are committing to voluntary pledges. However, the extent to which corporations’ voluntary commitments are helping solve the problem remains underexplored. Here, we develop a novel typology to characterize voluntary commitments to reduce plastic pollution made between 2015 and 2020 by 973 companies, including the top 300 of the Fortune Global 500. We find that 72% of these companies have made some form of commitment(s) to reduce plastic pollution. About 67% of companies participating in voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) and 17% of non-VEP participants made measurable and timebound commitments. However, rather than tackle virgin plastics, most companies target packaging and general plastics and frequently emphasize recycling-related efforts. Growing commitments on plastic pollution are made by large and important companies, but significantly more efforts beyond plastic recycling are required to effectively address plastic pollution challenges.

Ocean conservation and sustainable use cannot be pursued or achieved without consideration of the planetary impacts of climate change, and particularly the role of the oceans in both mitigation and adaptation. For this reason, the international community has increasingly committed to providing aid to help finance public goods for ocean conservation and climate action. Although many organizations have set up mechanisms to track both aid and climate finance, such trackers are usually not focused on financial flows related to ocean conservation and climate action. In the absence of such coordinated tracking and monitoring of aid, policy makers cannot assess the attention or priority of international funding mechanisms on oceans and ocean-related climate issues. As such, we aim to contribute to efforts to track aid for ocean conservation and climate action by providing a comprehensive baseline of international flows, by relevant global goal and target. We will build upon recent efforts that have established a baseline for international institutions operating at the global level. According to the data collected, we estimate that the cumulative public financing for ocean conservation and climate action grew from $579 million in 2013 to over $3.5 billion in 2019.