Fossil Fuels

Plastic production and pollution have a negative effect on the environment and climate change. Using detailed global and regional datasets coupled with socioeconomic data, machine learning was employed to predict that annual mismanaged plastic waste will nearly double by 2050. Annual GHG emissions from plastic are projected to grow by 37%. Four simulated treaty policies could reduce mismanaged plastic waste by 91% and GHG emissions by one-third.

Plastic production remains the most resource-intensive area of petrochemicals. This puts a serious strain on the economy and the environment, and indirectly finances military conflicts, including Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Thus, the modern global energy system is at a turning point.

The oil, gas, and petrochemical industry wields substantial power in both the climate and plastics treaty negotiations, and has used that power to stymie progress in both. Rather than repeat the failures of the climate negotiations, plastics negotiators should seek to create a “plastics club” for ambitious action. 

A new investigation exposes the toxic supply chain fueling global plastic production, shedding new light on the critical players driving the plastics and climate crises. The findings were used to build the Fracked Plastics Map, an interactive tool that traces the connections between more than 25 major consumer brands and petrochemicals sourced from fracking.

The report presents numbers and figures of the 2024 Great Global Nurdle Hunt. Nurdles are plastic pellets produced from fossil fuels, recycled or biobased material. Each year, due to mismanagement across the entire supply chain and a lack of regulation, over 445,000 t of nurdles spill into the environment around the world, making them a major source of primary microplastic pollution.

The Chinese online fashion brand SHEIN has promoted fast fashion to ultra fast fashion. It’s built on the exploitation of the environment and people, relying on the lack of enforcement of protection regulations for the environment as well as workers and consumers.

This investigation underscores the pivotal role the fashion industry plays in perpetuating fossil fuel dependency and signals a concerning lack of action to break ties with Russian oil – through which the fashion brands are indirectly funding petrochemical expansion and the war in Ukraine.

Global fashion brands are promoting circularity, but in reality that's still a myth. Nowhere is the failure of fast fashion more visible than in the countries where many of these cheap clothes end up: on huge dump sites, burnt on open fires, along riverbeds and washed out into the sea, with severe consequences for people and the planet.