Project Overview

The Plastics & Climate Project is "ahead of the curve. Your work helped to establish the urgent need to understand the nexus between plastic pollution and climate change. Thanks for your tireless work to bring the issue of the climate impact of plastics to the attention of the world. You've helped to bring thisissue into sharp public focus - exactly where it belongs." ~ Dr. Ben Santer

Scientists know that plastics - and the petrochemicals in them, have climate change impacts. But we don’t know how much of a temperature rise they may cause. [1] With increasing plastic production, use, and waste generation, these climate impacts will also increase. Even many “bio” and "compostable" plastics affect the climate, but it is unclear to what extent. In addition, a number of climate impacts from plastics are not included in any greenhouse gas emissions inventories, climate models, or scenarios, including those published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Therefore, the goal of The Plastics & Climate Project is to help estimate the extent to which plastics and their associated petrochemicals contribute to the global average temperature rise. In working towards achieving this goal, the Project conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed scientific literature to identify critical data gaps, developed an agenda for the necessary continued research, and recommended policies and actions to support that research and to include plastics’ climate impacts in relevant analyses.

The result of these efforts is our peer-reviewed paper, “The knowns and unknowns in our understanding of how plastics impact climate change: a systematic review,” published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, and a summary report for non-technical audiences, "Plastics: Exposing Their Climate Impacts, What We Know, What We Need To Know, & Recommendations For Research and Policy." With these publications, we are sharing our findings with the scientific community, policymakers, educators, businesses, investors, and advocates. Our aim is to generate support for the necessary subsequent research and inclusion of climate-relevant plastic impacts in relevant modeling, accounting, reporting, scenarios, and policies. An advisory board composed of science and policy experts has provided input at key points throughout the Project and helped foster communication and coordination among other people and institutions working on complementary issues.

[1] Plastics affect the climate in multiple ways due both to greenhouse gas emissions through all stages of the plastics life cycle, and to plastic's physical and chemical properties, including shedding of micro- and nanoplastics. The only impact category that is accounted for is greenhouse gas emissions. However, only the emissions from the beginning extraction and production phases, and some forms of waste management are counted. Global production of primary plastics alone generated more than 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2023 - about 5% (up to 5.3%) of total global GHG emissions, or twice the amount from aviation. (The 5% is approximate as it depends on the global GHG emissions number used (WRI or Canadian government). A 2024 study (Pottinger, et al) estimates annual increases in GHG emissions from the plastics lifecycle are projected to grow 37% by 2050 to approximately 3.35 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent.