No, the United Nations is not launching a credit card with a carbon limit | Fact check

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·4 min read

The claim: The UN is launching a credit card that can be used to punish people who use too much carbon

A May 20 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) contends the United Nations will have a way to control consumers’ spending.

"Mastercard and the United Nations are joining forces to monitor the carbon effect of your credit card purchases," the person in the video says in part. "And then you'll hit your carbon max and it will stop working. Hey, of course it's voluntary, for now."

The person in the video goes on to describe it as a “social credit score” that can be used to "punish" consumers and businesses. The post's caption describes the card as "forthcoming."

The post was liked more than 1,000 times in three days.

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Our rating: False

The U.N. is not launching such a credit card. The post overstates the U.N.’s involvement with a credit card developed to track carbon emissions that has not been available since 2022. The company behind the card has no plans to bring it back or launch anything similar.

Carbon limit credit card no longer offered

The social media user claims the credit card is called "Doconomy," which is actually the name of a Swedish technology company that at one point produced a card in this vein. That card, however, was not part of a U.N. effort to control people’s spending or carbon usage, and it is no longer offered, Doconomy CEO Mathias Wikström told USA TODAY.

Introduced in 2019, the DO Black card was created by Doconomy in collaboration with Mastercard and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was intended to help users "track and measure CO2 emissions associated with their purchases,” according to an announcement from Mastercard. Wikström said card users could set the card to block purchases if they exceeded monthly or annual carbon limits.

But the U.N. was not attempting to control people’s spending with the card, Wikström wrote in an email. And there was no mechanism by which the U.N. would "monitor" individuals' carbon impact as the claim describes.

The card was intended to help consumers understand climate impact by using the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement as references in setting the carbon limits. The Paris Agreement called for cutting greenhouse emissions in half from 2015 to 2030 to slow the rate of climate change.

"It was not designed to put limits on people’s spending, restrict where they go and how they get there, control what they buy, who they can see, what they can eat, etc., but rather to empower individuals to track their own carbon footprint and implement more sustainable consumption choices,” Wikström wrote.

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DO Black cardholders were also encouraged to donate to projects that met the criteria for U.N. green certification to further offset their carbon usage, according to Wikström.

Wikström said the card was discontinued in 2022 when Doconomy changed its business model and stopped directly providing consumers with services. It instead works with financial services companies, which can integrate Doconomy’s offerings into their own products and services to raise awareness of the carbon cost of consumption and lifestyle choices.

The DO Black card is no longer listed on Doconomy’s website.

There are no credible news reports about the U.N. launching its own credit card to track carbon emissions. Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez, a spokesperson for the U.N., told USA TODAY in an email that she was "not aware of any such initiative" by the organization.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carbon limit credit card not a UN tool for control | Fact check