Petrochemicals & Plastics

Global banks have invested US$133bn into U.S. petrochemical expansion, even as the industry is linked to climate change.

Visions of a booming hub that would bring jobs and prosperity to Appalachia faded, but the plastic “nurdles” remain.

After two straight years of flat or declining annual emissions, China is pressing ahead with new policies and technologies to drive further cuts, though key targets may remain out of reach.

"The federal government was entirely justified in listing plastics as toxic, and on the basis of that starting to implement measures to reduce plastic pollution in Canada," said former environment minister Steven Guilbeault, who oversaw the development of the plastics ban while in cabinet.

Oceans are the world’s largest carbon sink, and microplastics are interfering with the processes by which they store carbon and regulate temperature, a new study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials finds.

Canada is suspending the planned export ban on single-use plastics due to tariffs and supply chain issues "creating significant pressure on the domestic economy,” the federal government announced just before the holiday.

The United Nations’ flagship report calling for a global transformation of energy and food systems was published without its key policy summary after the United States and other petrostates objected, raising concerns about the future of global climate science assessments.

“We wipe our tears. We grit our teeth. We pick up the pieces and we begin again. And we do this over and over,” writes photographer Kiara Worth, who documented the collapse of the global plastics treaty in Geneva last week. “What we don’t do is give up hope.”

A legally binding global treaty to end plastics pollution was on the verge of collapse earlier this week, with some countries accused of blocking negotiations and driving the outcome toward a “lowest common denominator” on key issues like limits on plastic production.

The final round of negotiations for the global plastics treaty opened on August 5th in Geneva. As countries enter the final days of negotiations for the global plastics treaty, the urgency for measures to protect human and environmental health from the catastrophic effects of pollution from plastics could not be...

“For the first time ever, a legally binding global agreement to end plastic pollution is within reach,” said Luis Vayas Valdivieso, who is leading negotiators in what they hope will be the sixth and final round of treaty talks.

Sri Lanka’s top court ordered the owners of a Singapore-flagged container ship that sank near its capital to pay $1 billion in compensation to the island nation’s government for causing the most severe marine environment catastrophe in the country's history.

Environmental groups are concerned that rich countries are exporting plastic to poor countries in the form of “refuse-derived fuel."

A new study finds there are 27 million tonnes of invisible plastic particles in the North Atlantic alone.

Oil demand is expected to decline alongside slowing global growth, with China and Saudi Arabia—two of the world’s biggest oil consumers—now projected to reduce consumption as their economies evolve and cleaner technologies take hold.