While chemistry and chemicals have spurred economic development and improved quality of life, the industry and its downstream sectors have also contributed to toxic chemical pollution, plastics waste, biodiversity loss, and climate impacts. The UN Global Chemicals Outlook II Synthesis Report notes that known or suspected human health impacts from chemical exposures result in health costs upward of 10% of global gross domestic product; chemical pollution is also considered a key driver of species extinction and loss of biodiversity. These and other effects are likely to grow as the industry expands globally and if fossil fuels currently used for energy are used in petrochemical and plastics manufacturing. Governments, investors, and other groups recognise more and more the industry’s contributions to these challenges.
We at the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (a cross sector and whole value chain organisation dedicated to accelerating sustainable chemistry solutions) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell Sustainable Chemistry Catalyst (a research institute focused on analysis and stakeholder engagement to build methods, tools and model polices) believe the problem of chemical pollution won’t be solved without safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials, produced at scale.
We at the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council believe the problem of chemical pollution won’t be solved without safer and more sustainable chemicals and materials, produced at scale
To achieve this goal will require fundamental change within the chemicals industry and its dependent sectors. This in turn will require thoughtful transition-planning, including extensive public-private investment, value chain alignment, and a well-designed regulatory framework.
Growing sustainable chemistry solutions is not simple. Developing, deploying and substituting chemicals and materials involves significant challenges. The current set of chemicals and materials on which the economy relies was optimised over decades, capitalised, and integrated into complex global chains. They are often unregulated but new entrants to the market face significant hurdles.
Change requires time (sometimes decades); significant investment in terms of R&D, reformulation, capital, and scale; and multiple suppliers, as well as a value chain willingness to absorb possible changes in cost and performance. It also requires understanding and balancing the often-competing goals of reduced climate impact, circularity, protecting biodiversity, and lower toxicity. This requires significant collaboration, compromise and executive-level commitment along the value chain and across sectors. The chemicals industry alone did not cause, nor can it solve, chemical challenges without the entire value chain’s engagement.
There is reason to be hopeful. The European Commission’s Chemical Industry Transition Pathway – part of its Green Deal industrial strategy – provides an initial roadmap for the industry to address climate and other impacts. The Biden administration’s once-in-a-generation, multi-billion-dollar investments in decarbonising the economy as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act specifically target deploying sustainable chemistry. And its recent bold goals for US biotechnology and biomanufacturing call for the US to produce at least 30% of its chemical demand, as well as 90% of recyclable-by-design polymers, via sustainable and cost-effective biomanufacturing pathways within 20 years. But these initiatives, while laudable, lack the coordination of global efforts to address the climate crisis. Such efforts have engaged and aligned government, finance, industry and NGOs to achieve tangible and measurable goals.
On 21 April the Sustainable Chemistry Catalyst hosted a workshop on financing the transition to sustainable chemicals with the Investor Environmental Health Network of NGO, Clean Production Action. The workshop brought together angel investors, public and private equity, banks and analysts with the goal of building a stronger understanding of the financial risks associated with toxic chemicals, and the need for (and opportunities inherent in) sustainable chemistry investments to address toxicity, biodiversity, plastics and climate impacts. It was the culmination of a year of research and engagement aimed at understanding the drivers, needs and opportunities for investment and building a blueprint for coordinated sustainable chemistry transition finance, like that in the climate space. A key outcome of the meeting was a recognition of the need for a coalition to continue to educate and engage a broader cross-section of the public and private finance community.
Last month GC3 was rebranded as Change Chemistry reflecting our desire to drive and align value-chain action, government policy and incentives, and investment more effectively, to hasten innovation and adoption at scale of safer, more sustainable chemicals, materials and products. A cornerstone of these efforts will be more effective engagement with the finance community, which has played a critical role in building our existing chemicals and materials economy and will have a key part in investment decisions that shape the next generation.
Now is the time to act. It took a well-funded climate movement more than a decade to establish an understanding of financial risk and opportunity, get aligned, and generate the kinds of government and private commitments to action and transition finance we see today. Given the magnitude of chemical pollution globally – and the fact that chemistry investments can address multiple sustainability challenges simultaneously – we need to accelerate this timeline for action. Regional and country-level programmes, such as those in Europe and the US, can show what is possible. But given the global nature of the industry and its growth patterns in industrialising regions, global efforts through the UN science-policy interface for chemicals, the UN treaty on plastic pollution, and the International Conference on Chemicals Management will be needed to hasten the pace of investment in chemistry solutions.
The stars are beginning to align: recognition of the impacts of toxic chemicals and the contribution of chemistry to other global challenges is increasing; global, national and regional policies are being developed; and significant investments and roadmaps are in the works to address chemistry’s climate impact
The stars are beginning to align: recognition of the impacts of toxic chemicals and how chemistry contributes to other global challenges is increasing; global, national and regional policies are being developed; and significant investments and roadmaps are in the works to address climate impact. We need to take advantage of this moment to build a stronger movement to change chemistry, knowing that the transition will take decades not years. Every year we wait, we get closer to causing irreversible harm by exceeding planetary boundaries for chemical pollution. For us, Change Chemistry brings hope that we can leverage our innovative and collaborative spirits to drive solutions that are good for business, the economy, people and the planet.