The Plastics & Climate Project

The Plastics & Climate Project aims to comprehensively account for the climate impacts of plastics and help estimate the extent to which plastics and the petrochemicals they contain contribute to global average temperature rise. This initiative has resulted in the publication of a peer-reviewed paper in Frontiers in Environmental Science, "The knowns and unknowns in our understanding of how plastics impact climate change: a systematic review." We have also published a summary report for nontechnical audiences, "Plastics: Exposing Their Climate Impact," co-authored with the Environmental Law Institute, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the University of Wollongong. These publications examine the climate impact of plastics throughout their lifecycle, including their effects on the carbon cycle and the radiation budget. The Project is now engaged in a major outreach effort to share the findings and recommendations with scientists, policymakers, educators, communities, industry, investors and others, to garner support for the necessary subsequent research, and to include climate-relevant plastic impacts in climate models and greenhouse gas accounting, including the IPCC, the UN negotiations for a global plastics treaty, and national, subnational and local efforts to address the plastics and climate crises. The Project also fosters communication among other researchers and institutions working on complementary aspects of the plastics and climate nexus. An annotated and ongoing collection of resources about the climate impacts of plastics is available to all at The Plastics & Climate Project website.