Printed April 15, 2026
By Delphine Lévi Alvarès, International Petrochemicals Marketing campaign Supervisor on the Middle for Worldwide Environmental Legislation.
As the worldwide group gathers for the First Convention on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, the dialog has shifted from whether or not to section out fossil fuels to the pressing activity of when and how to implement a managed, funded, and equitable phaseout. But, for this implementation to be efficient, it should confront the speedy development of petrochemicals and deal with their proliferation. As a much less seen, however equally aggressive technique, the fossil gasoline trade is deploying petrochemicals to create markets for non-energy makes use of of the identical fossil fuels. Whereas coverage has lengthy focused the fuels powering transport and power, a full phaseout is barely attainable if we deal with this final trade survival tactic.
Petrochemicals: The Essential Hole in Local weather Coverage
Whereas “fossil gasoline” describes what we burn, petrochemicals symbolize the feedstock for our fashionable economic system. Derived primarily from oil and gasoline, but in addition from coal, these chemical substances — equivalent to ethylene and ammonia — function the muse for artificial supplies like plastics and fertilizers, which account for three-quarters of the sector’s output.
As these merchandise underpin every little thing from international meals programs to technological infrastructure, fossil fuels have change into woven into the material of our social existence — typically rendering them invisible to coverage. Santa Marta supplies a pivotal alternative to handle how fossil fuels — hidden in plain sight — are increasing via petrochemicals. A simply transition stays inconceivable if the trade is permitted to easily shift its enterprise mannequin from burning oil as gasoline to locking it into artificial supplies.
How Petrochemical Enlargement Locks in Fossil Gas Demand
At stake at Santa Marta is the chance of an enormous bodily lock-in of fossil gasoline demand. Petrochemical growth is a deliberate technique to make sure that even because the world strikes away from fossil fuels for power, it stays tethered to them for supplies. Lately, petrochemical feedstock has accounted for nearly all of oil demand development, comprising practically 16 p.c of oil demand in 2024, and is projected to extend to over 17 p.c by 2030.
This lifeline is manifesting in an enormous infrastructure build-out. Estimates counsel that over 120 tasks to supply polyethylene — the world’s commonest type of plastic — will come on-line by 2030. These services require a long time of high-volume fossil gasoline inputs to stay worthwhile, forcing continued dependence that successfully anchors the fossil economic system in place for many years to come back.
Past bodily infrastructure, the trade is proactively repositioning itself as a “transition enabler” to justify the continued use of fossil property. For instance, presenting ammonia produced with carbon seize (“blue ammonia”) as a possible “zero-carbon” transport gasoline supplies cowl for sustaining and increasing fossil infrastructure. Equally, in some international locations, ammonia is being marketed as a option to allegedly scale back emissions and lengthen the lifetime of growing older energy vegetation by burning it alongside coal. These are usually not real options; they’re greenwashing mechanisms designed to rebrand fossil gasoline dependency as suitable with a transition to a low-carbon economic system in an try to delay extra transformative adjustments.
Strategic Levers to Speed up the Fossil Gas Phaseout
Addressing petrochemicals at Santa Marta requires deploying focused levers to speed up the general fossil gasoline phaseout. One entry level is the sector’s present monetary instability. Overcapacity in plastics has led to low utilization and slim margins, and plant closures. This supplies a strategic opening to push for managed decline pathways quite than continued growth.
One other lever entails debunking the greenwash that allows the construct out of speculative and pointless ammonia tasks. Pushed largely by US subsidies, this growth targets a transport gasoline market that doesn’t but exist. Difficult the false narrative of petrochemicals as “clear” power — or as key to the transition — may also assist stop lock-in of petrochemical manufacturing and fossil infrastructure. In the end, eliminating this greenwash prevents a key means fossil pursuits escape from transition stress and undermines a serious development supply for the trade.
Defending Human Rights By way of a Simply Transition
Centering human well being supplies a robust synergy for a phaseout. Petrochemicals current an enormous risk, with international well being prices from plastic chemical substances and nitrogen air pollution estimated within the trillions of US {dollars} yearly. Acknowledging the poisonous affect of petrochemicals exposes the true value of fossil fuels, establishes company legal responsibility, and builds the general public stress essential to reform the legal guidelines that govern their manufacturing and use.
The petrochemical sector have to be built-in into simply transition discussions at Santa Marta and past to make sure the phaseout is simply, rights-based, and absolutely resourced. As a result of petrochemicals are woven into a lot of our each day lives, their decline have to be fastidiously deliberate to guard human rights and international well-being. This requires deep systemic transformations of our economies to maneuver past fossil gasoline dependency whereas proactively defending the individuals who depend upon these programs and guaranteeing nobody is left behind.
Solely when petrochemicals are handled as a core a part of the phaseout, can the fossil economic system be uprooted in earnest, providing a pathway to a secure, resilient, and simply future.
