Emissions from new petrochemical projects surpass US commercial aviation.
WASHINGTON, Sept 24, 2024 — The US is poised for a petrochemical buildout that threatens critical climate targets and locks us into dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come, according to a new report from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).
Emissions Unleashed: The Climate Crisis and America’s Petrochemical Boom reveals that new US petrochemical projects could result in CO2 emissions equivalent to adding nearly 40 coal plants per year — surpassing annual emissions from all US commercial aviation. This buildout could increase US petrochemical emissions by 38%.
The report, which analyzes the climate impacts of the planned US petrochemical buildout, gives clues to the fossil fuel industry’s game plan, identifies the most climate-polluting projects and products on the horizon, and uncovers how taxpayers are being misled into funding polluting projects being sold as ‘climate solutions.’
“The US is poised for a massive petrochemical buildout that would undermine global efforts to curb the climate crisis,” says Barnaby Pace, report author and Senior Researcher at CIEL. “Worse still, many polluting petrochemical projects are set to be subsidized by public money under the guise of ‘climate action’ when in fact they could lock in fossil fuel use for decades to come.”
Report findings also reveal that nearly 60% of plastic production projects, by emissions contributions, are on hold — suggesting a combination of organized opposition, litigation, and market forces is beginning to constrain the expansion of plastic production. “Petrochemicals are bad for people, bad for the planet, and they are bad for business. Financing the expansion of petrochemicals in the current climate opens banks, insurers, and investors up to mounting reputational, legal, regulatory, and financial risk,” says Brandon Marks, Petrochemical Finance Campaigner at CIEL.
In the face of the findings, CIEL is urging US leaders and permitting authorities to reject the planned petrochemical expansion and its devastating climate and health consequences.
“This buildout wouldn’t just derail climate goals, it would further devastate communities, sacrificing people for the pursuit of profits from more unnecessary, polluting plastics and fertilizers,” says Jane Patton, CIEL’s US Fossil Economy Campaign Manager. “In Louisiana, we’re already buckling under the burden of toxic pollution and the climate crisis as we live with the daily threats of rising seas, failing infrastructure, and skyrocketing home insurance costs. My neighbors along the Mississippi River are fighting to end the scourge of industrial pollution in our air and water while being expected to brave cancer risks up to 800 times the national average. US leaders must act now. Our communities and the climate cannot afford any more petrochemical pollution.”
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