Recommendation for Society: Sustainable Transition for the Global Chemical Industry

Background of Recommendation

Chemical products support our modern life in a variety of ways. Recently, as society battles COVID-19, plastics are used extensively in medical settings and in everyday life to protect against infection, as well as in food delivery as plastic containers. In fact, chemical products are used as ingredients in almost all industries. On the other hand, the chemical industry and its supply chain have significant environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, waste plastic in the ocean, and the runoff of excess nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers into nature.

Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions is a pressing issue, but the chemical industry faces three uncertainties1 in addition to the technical difficulties of net-zero emissions, which together have slowed the progress. Furthermore, net zero needs to be achieved within the Planetary Boundaries2, and there is no point in achieving net zero at the expense of other Planetary Boundaries processes, such as biodiversity. Given this background, the Center for Global Commons at the University of Tokyo, together with Systemiq and with the support from Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, shed light on these three uncertainties and developed pathways for the global chemical industry to achieve net zero emissions, including those from its supply chain, within the Planetary Boundaries. We then developed recommendations for the chemical industry, multi-stakeholder coalitions, and policy makers3.

Summary of Recommendation

In the recommendation, the chemical industry needs to take not only the supply-side measures such as the transition of raw materials (from fossil-based materials to recycled materials, biobased materials, and DAC-CCU4,etc.), transition to renewable energy, and expansion of CCS5, but also to accommodate the reduction in the demand for chemical products due to stronger circular economy in the downstream of the supply chain. In addition, in order to realize these transitions, it is important to accelerate the development and scale-up of technologies related to the raw material transition, finance, and data exchange regarding the ingredients, emissions, etc. within the supply chain. Furthermore, as a framework to support these actions, regulations such as carbon pricing and recycled content, establishment of the upstream/downstream collaboration through future demand commitment for net-zero chemical products by progressive downstream customers, and establishment of a global charter setting forth transition principles by relevant parties are essential.

The full report can be downloaded below.

Recommendation for Society(PDF)

1 (1)Uncertainty regarding the future demand for net-zero chemical products, which will be higher-cost; (2)uncertainty regarding the various candidate technologies related to achieving net-zero; and (3)uncertainty regarding pathways to net-zero.
2 The nine processes that stabilize the global environmental system (climate change, biodiversity, etc.), in which thresholds that must not be crossed for sustainable development are defined.
3 To ensure impartiality, this recommendation was developed with discussions with a panel comprised of independent consultants, academia other than the University of Tokyo, and experts from the industry.
4 Direct Air Capture – Carbon Capture and Utilization
5Carbon Capture and Storage