This One Type of Production Is a Huge Factor in Climate Change

Veuer

A new report from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab warns that the plastics production industry releases four times as many planet-warming emissions as the airline industry. Veuer’s Matt Hoffman has the story.

Transcript

00:00What's one of the biggest drivers of climate change?

00:02One word, plastics.

00:04That's according to a new report from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab,

00:08as reported by The Hill.

00:10The report claims that the plastics production process releases four times as many planet-warming emissions

00:15as the airline industry, or as much as 600 coal plants.

00:19It's a strong warning, and the timing of its release is presumably intentional.

00:23According to The Guardian, next week marks the start of the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee summit,

00:28which could result in a treaty limiting plastics production.

00:31The Guardian quotes the authors of the report as saying that current proposals for the treaty

00:34do not yet include any explicit consideration of climate impacts.

00:38And The Hill quotes Neil Tangry of the University of California at Berkeley as commenting,

00:43We need a global agreement to stop this cancerous growth, bring down plastic production,

00:47and usher in a world with less plastic and less pollution.

00:50Issues surrounding plastics production have become prominent enough

00:53that the cause has even attracted the support of industry leaders, at least nominally.

00:56Jim Fitterling is the CEO of Dow, the world's third-largest plastics producer.

01:01On Tuesday, he published an article in Fortune headlined,

01:04My company is a major plastic producer.

01:06We must end plastic pollution.

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