Big oil producers are pinning their future growth on the world\u2019s insatiable appetite for plastic, researchers said Friday (4 September), in a \u201cbet\u201d on society\u2019s failure to tackle disposable consumption that risks stranding billions of dollars in petrochemical investments.<\/p>\n
The industry has faced increasingly urgent questions in recent months about whether \u201cpeak\u201d oil demand has been reached, with the coronavirus pandemic leading to a dramatic drop in transport fuel consumption, while cleaner energy makes ever greater headway.<\/p>\n
But oil producers now see plastics as the biggest driver of future demand, according to a new report by financial think tank Carbon Tracker and sustainability and development group Systemiq.<\/p>\n
Plastic production has increased around 4% every year since 2000, the report said, adding that most firms in the industry appear to expect that rate of growth to continue, driven mainly by emerging economies.<\/p>\n
Plastics currently make up less than 9% of oil demand, but the report said they are the largest component of oil demand growth.<\/p>\n
It said the industry now plans to invest at least $400 billion (\u20ac337.8 billion) in the next five years to expand supply for so-called virgin plastics by a quarter, but warned that this risked huge losses for investors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plastics industry, in its assumption of a doubling of demand for plastics in the next 10, 20 years or so, is making a bet that society will fail to find any solutions to reduce, substitute or recycle plastic,\u201d said report author Kingsmill Bond, energy strategist at Carbon Tracker.<\/p>\n
He told AFP that it was an \u201cunreasonable assumption to imagine that you could carry on doing for the next 50 years what you\u2019ve done for the last 70 years, which is polluted with impunity\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some 350 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually \u2013 about half in Asia, 19% in North America and 16% in Europe.<\/p>\n
The International Energy Agency forecast in 2018 that the growth in demand for petrochemical products \u2013 including plastics, fertilisers, detergents and other items \u2013 would see them account for over a third of the predicted increase in oil demand to 2030, and nearly half to 2050.<\/p>\n
But surging plastic use has caused a pollution crisis, with least 8 million tonnes thought to end up in oceans every year.<\/p>\n
This has spurred governments to mandate greater recycling, impose tighter restrictions on waste disposal and in some cases introduce bans on single-use items.<\/p>\n
How Europe\u2019s war on plastics is affecting petrochemicals<\/p>\n
With oil use in cars expected to peak in the mid-2020s, oil companies are seeking shelter in petrochemicals \u2013 and plastics \u2013 where demand is still going strong. However, even that notion is now being challenged because of a global plastics backlash led by Europe.<\/p>\n
Pollution fears<\/p>\n
The Carbon Tracker report forecast that mounting pressure to cut plastic use could slash growth in demand for virgin plastic from four percent a year to below one percent, with demand peaking in 2027.<\/p>\n
It also found that the plastic value chain \u2013 from extraction of the oil, to when it is burned, buried or recycled \u2013 releases roughly twice as much carbon dioxide as producing a tonne of oil.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys think that they are going to be completely unaffected by the world\u2019s attempt to cut down carbon usage,\u201d said Bond.<\/p>\n
Overall, the report said that plastics impose \u201ca massive untaxed externality upon society\u201d of at least $1,000 per tonne \u2013 or $350bn a year \u2013 from carbon dioxide, health costs, collection costs, and ocean pollution.<\/p>\n
The European Union in July proposed a tax on non-recycled plastics of \u20ac800 per tonne.<\/p>\n
But recycling has also come under the spotlight in recent years after China restricted imports of plastic in 2018, sending a surge of discarded waste \u2013 mainly from richer nations \u2013 towards countries in South and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
In a report last week, Interpol warned that criminal networks are profiting from this \u201coverwhelming\u201d level of plastic waste by burning and dumping rubbish that was supposed to be recycled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Big oil producers are pinning their future growth on the world\u2019s insatiable appetite for plastic, researchers said Friday (4 September), in a \u201cbet\u201d on society\u2019s failure to tackle disposable consumption that risks stranding billions of dollars in petrochemical investments. The industry has faced increasingly urgent questions in recent months about whether \u201cpeak\u201d oil demand has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11966,10453],"supplier":[17146,5585,967,17392],"class_list":["post-78673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-plastics","tag-recycling","supplier-carbon-tracker-initiative-limited","supplier-european-union","supplier-international-energy-agency-iea","supplier-systemiq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78673"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=78673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}