The private sector is primed to drive climate action and has an opportunity to advance sustainable consumption among the general public, Ellen Jackowski, chief sustainability officer at Mastercard, told Devex on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28, in Dubai. That’s why its presence is vital within and around such global dialogues, she added.
As a payments technology company with over 90 million merchants, 20,000 banking partners, and over three billion cards in circulation, Mastercard is well positioned to catalyze climate action across its global network, said Jackowski.
Steps Mastercard has taken to do so include changes to the material of its bank cards to recycled or bio-sourced plastics; inspiring, informing, and enabling more sustainable consumption; and engaging in partnerships to drive climate action and impact. At the same time, its work to advance financial inclusion is also preparing communities to adapt and be more resilient to climate change, Jackowski said. The payments technology company is working to ensure one billion people are connected to the digital economy by 2025 via the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. “As people gain access to the digital economy, they also gain access to better earnings and financial resources, empowering them to be more equipped to adapt to risks brought on by climate change and disasters.”
Speaking to Devex, Jackowski explained why the role of a private sector company such as Mastercard is pivotal to climate conversations and action, and shared the actions it's taking to lead the way.
This conservation has been edited for length and clarity.
What are Mastercard’s priorities at COP 28?
One, it’s to be a key part of business voices urging action out of COP 28. We were very pleased to see the loss and damage announcement and the methane and food announcements among others.
In addition to being an influencer of action representing business, we also want to continue to find and leverage new partnerships. We've been hosting a variety of activities — from small group roundtables to big panels to lunch discussions — where we're sharing our vision for the future and what we're trying to accomplish. We’re looking for others who are aligned and can bring complementary capabilities to help us move faster in our ambition and achieving impact.
We're also here as a convener, bringing together diverse groups. For example, we hosted a dinner where we brought representatives from the seven indigenous sociocultural regions together with other business and organizational leaders to share their knowledge about how they consume sustainably and lessons in climate action that we can learn from and adopt.
How does this pertain to Mastercard's overall approach to sustainability?
We are focused on driving sustainable consumption by inspiring, informing, and enabling the stakeholders across our network. Inspire is about changing the narrative. There's been dialogue here at COP, and over the past year, around the fact that the next generation is getting increasingly angry and frustrated. There's a lot of paralysis and eco-anxiety, but the science says that we still should be optimistic about holding to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but to do so, we need to take urgent action. So how do we mobilize and move from anxiety and fear to optimism and action, especially while this window of preserving 1.5 degrees Celsius is still open? Driving sustainable consumption from an inspirational point of view is important to us.
Last year, we also made a rule change that applies to all issuers on our network that by 2028 any bank that issues Mastercard need to create those cards out of recycled or bio-sourced plastics and be approved through a certification program. From my perspective, it provides a clear nudge to the cardholder. There was a conscious choice of what the card is made of, which aims to inspire its cardholder to pause and think about “What are you purchasing? Is this the right thing? Is there something you could be doing differently, more sustainably?” when you pull out your Mastercard to purchase an item.
This is in a context of our digital-first strategy, so there may be instances in the future where our issuers don't need to issue a physical card at all. It could be just digital, loaded onto your phone for example, where we can dematerialize the card altogether.
The second pillar is to inform. Inform is the role that we can play to help cardholders and consumers make more sustainable choices. We have our first product, the Mastercard Carbon Calculator, where at the end of the month cardholders receive their bill and it includes the estimated carbon impact of what you bought. This is the first iteration of this segment of products around carbon calculation, where we're aiming to help educate and inform cardholders to be able to make more sustainable choices.
The third pillar is to enable, and this effort is focused on driving action and impact. If you're inspired to live a sustainable, fulfilling lifestyle, if you're informed and have access to the right information at the right time to make a more sustainable choice, then how do we make it easy to take that action? For example, the New York subway had a ticketing system where you needed a physical ticket to ride the subway. At times, you may have needed exact change to get on a bus. Imagine if you didn't need that ticket, and instead, you could just tap your Mastercard and go, making it easier to choose the lower carbon transport option
We are also reducing the barriers to adopting electric vehicle transportation options. We are working with several companies to load Mastercard credit cards inside the car. So when your car drives up to a charging station, the charging station recognizes the car, and the car recognizes the charging station. It's another small barrier where you don't have to fiddle around to find your card and figure out the payment system. We are looking for any ways that we can make it easier to choose low-carbon solutions, in transit, and other categories, as well.
Nature-based climate solutions are gaining attention. Why does Mastercard consider these solutions important, and how is the company collaborating with others to scale up initiatives in this area?
The Priceless Planet Coalition is a great example of our efforts to drive nature-based solutions. This coalition consists of businesses working with our implementation partners, Conservation International and World Resources Institute, to restore 100 million trees. Our efforts are guided by the climate science of Conservation International and WRI to ensure that the locations where we're planting, now in over 20 geographies, are selected because they have the biggest impact on carbon. For example, we have a large restoration area in Brazil, another one in Kenya, and one in Madagascar.
Through these partnerships, companies can also make donations or run various campaigns that engage their consumers to donate to the planet. For example, Carrefour in France ran a campaign at more than 400 participating stores encouraging customers to round up the cost of their purchase at checkout as a donation to plant a tree.
What do you hope will emerge from the discussions at COP?
There were some big issues on the table at COP 28, which were made even more prominent because of the location of where it's happening. We’re optimistic that all parties will start to progress on the commitments made, but we're not waiting to take action. Mastercard will continue to drive an ambitious climate agenda focusing on sustainable consumption, inclusive climate action, and nature-based solutions.