Mastercard Adds 15 New Projects to Priceless Planet Coalition

On Tuesday (April 19), Mastercard announced the expansion of the reforestation work of the Priceless Planet Coalition, the company’s environmental restoration platform, with 15 new projects.

These projects, now totaling 18 worldwide, will contribute to the efforts that the Coalition’s companies, communities and consumers in climate action are making towards reforestation and environment restoration, which includes more than 100 global partners.

Started in 2020, the Priceless Planet Coalition’s main goal is to preserve the environment through the restoration of 100 million trees in five years. So far, the Coalition has environmental projects running in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America.

The expansion of these projects builds on the Coalition’s existing progress underway in Australia, Kenya and the Amazon in Brazil, according to the release.

“The Priceless Planet Coalition is focused on addressing the urgent global climate crisis by restoring the right trees in the right places,” said Jorn Lambert, chief digital officer at Mastercard. “By collaborating with our global network of Coalition partners, we are able to further scale our forest restoration work and create collective action for the planet.”

According to the Mastercard Economics Institute, “Consumer donations to environmentally focused charities grew 48.4% globally in 2022 when compared to pre-pandemic 2019 levels, overall outpacing donation growth to other organizations.”

Mastercard said its efforts with the Priceless Planet Coalition are just one more step toward bringing environmentally-focused solutions to its users.

Related: Four Lawmakers Ask Visa, Mastercard to Scrap Plans to Raise Fees to Merchants

In other company news, on April 15, four lawmakers on both sides of the aisle sent a letter to Visa and Mastercard stating that merchants would pass increased interchange fees on to consumers.

“Electronic payments play a critical role every day and have proven even more valuable since the start of the pandemic,” a Mastercard spokesman said at that time. “And that’s why we’re seeing merchants encouraging their customers to use electronic forms of payment due to the significant value that they receive in return — a safe, convenient experience and a guaranteed payment.”