About Investors statement calling on petrochemical companies to reduce fossil fuel dependency and eliminate hazardous chemicals in plastics

Collaboration details

Why this statement:

Petrochemical companies are a major contributor to plastic production, increasing the threat of plastic pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss and human health impacts. However, during the latest round of the UN led Plastics Treaty negotiations petrochemical companies have opposed any amendments to address production to curb plastic pollution and pushed back against the inclusion of any suggested proposals to address polymer production within the treaty.

This bears risks for investors. Plastics production is due to triple by 2060 with lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions due to double, contributing to 4.5% of global emissions. To align with the Paris Agreement petrochemical companies must transition. Additionally, emerging evidence links toxic chemicals present in plastics to a variety of health issues. In the USA alone, exposure to just three common plastic chemicals amounted to USD 675 billion in health costs in 2015. As plastic polymer production continues to surge, the threat looms larger. To manage the resulting financial risks, we now ask investors to join a call on petrochemical companies to reduce fossil fuel dependency and eliminate hazardous chemicals in plastics.

Objectives

With the statement, investors are asking petrochemical companies to:

Transparently disclose, define strategies and set clear targets to transition to production of safe, environmentally sound and sustainable plastic
Address polymers and chemicals of concern in their products
Build suitable infrastructure for production of sustainable materials
Establish dedicated governance
Publicly support an ambitious international legally binding instrument for ending plastic pollution

In the run up to the UN treaty on plastics, this call is a public expression of investor concern about the industry's failure to commit to a transition and its opposition to a strong and ambitious treaty to end plastic pollution.

Webinar: We invite you to our webinar on May 21, to hear more about the investor risks related to the petrochemicals industry, the need for investors to challenge the industry to mitigate these risks, and the role of a strong and binding UN plastics treaty in this context.

Stament and sign up:

Read the full statement: https://planet-tracker.org/petchem-investors/

Sign the statement: https://planet-tracker.org/petchem-investor-statement-form

More info

If you would like to speak to organisers of the statement directly, please reach out to nicole@planet-tracker.org.

NB: If you cannot make the deadline of June 14th, but you are still interested to sign on, please let us know as soon as possible.