BP and Spotify were among companies who bought carbon credits at risk of being implicated in potential Uyghur forced labour, an investigation has found.

The credits were sourced from the Bachu carbon project, which was developed by South Pole, the world’s largest carbon consultancy. The project focussed on a biomass power plant in Xinjiang, China, which said it would lower global carbon emissions by using waste cotton stalks from nearby fields to generate electricity.

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BP bought the most carbon credits from the project, according to the figures, using it as part of its 2020 portfolio for the BP Target Neutral scheme, which offers people the chance to offset their emissions from driving. BP declined to comment and still lists the project on its Target Neutral website at the time of publishing.

WWF, Spotify, the tennis player Dominic Thiem, Ecologi and Hilton Hotels were among others that bought credits from the project, according to the Gold Standard registry and South Pole sales data. Not all were directly sold the credits by South Pole. WWF and Ecologi stopped supporting the scheme in 2019, Spotify in 2020, they told the Guardian. Thiem and Hilton Hotels did not respond to questions.

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