Plastics and Climate

Understanding the Links Between Plastics and Climate Change

Plastic pollution is a climate problem for our ocean and coastal communities—we must stop it at the source.

Every year, 11 million metric tons of plastic leak into the ocean, polluting our coastlines, cities and waterways. We often focus on where these plastics end up—but to solve the problem, we have to look upstream to where plastic production begins. 99% of plastics are made from fossil fuels—plastic waste is just another form of pollution from the fossil fuel industry along with significant greenhouse gas emissions. The plastic pollution crisis is also a climate crisis for our ocean and coastal communities.

The Problem

Plastics are made from and powered by fossil fuels—oil, gas and coal. Globally, we use as much oil to make plastic as we do for global aviation. By 2050, 20% of our oil use will be for plastics. As we transition away from fossil fuels for energy and towards a clean energy future, the fossil fuel industry is investing its vast financial resources to increase new plastic production as demand for plastics continues to grow. If we don’t reduce how much plastic we make and use, we won’t be able to leave behind fossil fuels and their devastating impacts on the climate as well as our ocean and communities.

Already, plastics are responsible for 3-4% of global greenhouse gas emissions; if they continue to grow, this will triple by 2050. Further, microplastics—tiny plastic particles and fibers—can harm bacteria and plankton in the ocean. These organisms are essential for absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and are a big reason why the ocean has effectively moderated Earth’s climate throughout history. Unless we reduce plastics, we’ll not only produce more emissions, but we’ll also damage the natural systems that are helping to slow climate change—a combination that will spell disaster for global efforts to limit climate change to livable levels that will keep our ocean and communities healthy.

When I think about my personal climate impact, I usually think about flights, or my car. Now I think about plastics in the same way. We can’t get off of fossil fuels unless we make less plastic.

Aarthi Ananthanarayanan

Director, Climate and Plastics Initiative

Growing plastic production is a major problem for coastal communities that already experience some of the damaging impacts of climate change: flooding, sea level rise and more extreme hurricanes. The petrochemical infrastructure that produces plastics is often coastal energy infrastructure—oil and gas production, refining and export facilities—that emits significant air and water pollution with severe health consequences for neighboring communities including asthma, cancer, endocrine disruption, developmental disorders and heart disease. Extreme weather, sea level rise and flooding increase risks to these facilities, making accidents and unpermitted pollution releases more likely and increasing the amount of plastics and chemical pollution entering our communities, waterways and ocean. Reducing plastic pollution will help communities stay healthy and resilient in the face of worsening climate change impacts.

The Solution

Building a strong, just and clean energy economy for our ocean and coastal communities requires that we stop the growth of virgin, or new, plastic production. We must work quickly to bring plastics into clean energy policies, slow investment in new plastics production and shift to circular business models.

We have a lot of momentum to build on: investors managing more than half of the world’s assets committed to the Paris Climate Agreement goals. The United States has made a major investment in the clean energy economy through the 2022 landmark Inflation Reduction Act. California, the fifth largest economy in the world, passed legislation requiring 25% less single-use plastics by 2032. And governments around the world are beginning negotiations on a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. The thing is, these conversations about plastics and fossil fuels are happening completely separate from each other. But we can’t have a robust conversation about fighting climate change and ending our reliance on fossil fuels without talking about the impact of plastics.

To stop the linked threats of climate change and plastic pollution, we urge governments, investors and corporations to make plastic reduction a key part of their climate action. Together we can:

Stop plastics growth as a key strategy in advancing the clean energy transition:

Restrict expansion of plastic production to end our dependence on fossil fuels. New plastic production facilities are major industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions. By limiting new production, we can avoid infrastructure being put in place that will keep us reliant on fossil fuels.
End fossil fuel and plastics subsidies. Plastics are heavily subsidized by the same tax incentives that prop up fossil fuels, making them cheap, plentiful, and hard to manage. Eliminating subsidies enables alternatives to compete, freeing up precious tax dollars for investment in clean energy solutions.
- Watch: UNDP and We Don’t Have Time-Dino Talks episode V: Fossil Fuel Subsidies & Plastic Management
- Ocean Conservancy Expert Commentary: Put an End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies
Advance a legally binding global instrument to end plastic pollution. A strong agreement that addresses the full plastic pollution lifecycle will also help governments achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement while supporting vulnerable communities and the ocean.
- Ocean Conservancy Expert Commentary: A Global Instrument to End Plastic Pollution

Create accountability and transparency around the impacts of plastics through climate commitments, sustainable investing, and policy:

Make plastics a meaningful part of climate commitments. Climate commitments made by governments, investors, and companies to phase down fossil fuels and transition to a clean energy economy are credible only if they include significant reductions in virgin plastic production and use.
Require transparency for impacts and risks across the plastics lifecycle. Corporate disclosures of plastics use, Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions, and climate transition plans is imperative to enable investors, consumers, and regulators to evaluate the extraordinary financial, legal, reputational, and policy risks companies face throughout the entire plastics production lifecycle and reward those companies that are proactively managing those risks.
- Plastics Industry Case Study: Reliable Scope 3 Emissions Disclosures are Key to Addressing Climate-Related Financial Risks: A Plastics Industry Case Study
- Ocean Conservancy testimony before the Senate Climate Change Task Force: Community Risks are Climate Risks
Increase accountability for climate, community, and ocean impacts: A just transition requires holding plastic producers accountable for harmful impacts on communities, the climate, and our ocean by increasing regulations and enforcement of air and water pollution, increased risk management for extreme weather, management of methane from petrochemical facilities and feedstocks, and responsible phase-down and decommissioning of production.

Dramatically reduce plastics use and advance the circular economy:

National, state, and corporate policies that mandate reduced use reduced use: Plastic source reduction policies, along with incentives for refill/reuse systems play a critical role in decreasing the demand for virgin plastics and new production.
Investments in circular economy innovation: Extended producer responsibility policies, which require companies to take financial responsibility for the full lifecycle of their products, are needed to advance the circular economy. Investing in improving mechanical recycling, designing products for recyclability, and deploying refill and reuse business models can transform plastics demand and drive emissions reductions.
- The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics | Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Final Thought

Our ocean and coastal communities are bearing the brunt of the impacts from both plastic pollution and climate change. By accelerating the clean energy transition, we can achieve a healthier ocean, protected by a more just world.

For more information, please contact Aarthi Ananthanarayanan.