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Report

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Plastics: Exposing their climate impacts -​ what we know, what we need to know, & recommendations for research & policy

 

This report summarizes our peer-reviewed Frontiers in Environmental Science paper for non-technical audiences.

Authors: Holly Kaufman, Dr. Alice (Xia) Zhu, and the Environmental Law Institute (Cecilia Diedrich and Dr. John Doherty), with key input from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Dr. Karen Raubenheimer, University of Wollongong, Australia; edited by Dave Grossman.

Papers

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The knowns and unknowns in our understanding of how plastics impact climate change: a systematic review

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Frontiers in Environmental Science

 

This is the first paper to comprehensively examine what the science tells us about the  scope of plastics' climate impacts. It analyzes the existing peer-reviewed data, identifies critical data gaps, presents a roadmap for continued research, and recommends policies and actions to support that research and to include plastics’ climate impacts in relevant models, scenarios, accounting, and analyses.

Authors: Dr. Alice (Xia) Zhu, Justin Konik, and Holly Kaufman

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Greenhouse gas emissions from plastic photodegradation:

state of knowledge and future directions

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Environmental Research Letters

Authors: Advisory Board members Dr. Sarah-Jeanne Royer and Dr. Alice (Xia) Zhu

Policy Briefs

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Including the undercounted climate impacts of plastics

in the UN Climate Regime

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Briefer for COP 30

Authors: The Plastics & Climate Project, Environmental Law Institute, University of Wollongong

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Petrochemicals Workstream Briefing Note for the

First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels

Developed by members of the Petrochemicals Workstream, including The Plastics & Climate Project

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Fact Sheet

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The Climate Impacts of Plastics

Author: The Plastics & Climate Project

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