Decarbonizing petrochemicals will cost nearly $800 billion

Decarbonizing the petrochemical industry will come with a hefty price tag. According to a new report from the research firm BloombergNEF, it will cost about $759 billion for the industry to achieve nearly zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. The petrochemical industry generates about 2% of the world’s CO₂ emissions, the same as aviation. The largest emission reduction—40%—would come from carbon capture and storage, which is already being planned for some ammonia and ethylene plants. Another 35% would come from heating ethylene cracker furnaces with electricity rather than fossil fuel. The study predicts that bioplastics will capture only 2.5% of the plastics market because of high costs and a lack of sustainable biomass. It also sees refiners potentially shifting from making fuels to producing more aromatics for polymers. The report says lower-carbon routes to chemicals will be more expensive than today’s routes, even if the costs of lower-carbon technologies decline. BloombergNEF estimates that decarbonizing the global energy sector will cost $172 trillion.