Climate philanthropists have long known how to solve the climate crisis: use less oil and gas, use more renewables, electrify transit and update the grid, and stop burning coal. But as we head into another U.N. COP in Azerbaijan, there is a new and potent option that philanthropy must add to the arsenal: plastic, 99 percent of which is made from fossil fuels. 

Philanthropists concerned with climate change should consider the reduction of plastic as a central tool by taking advantage of a new U.N. Global Plastics Treaty. If we don’t, around 20-25 percent of the world’s carbon budget could be consumed by plastic by 2050, the equivalent of adding hundreds of new coal plants. 

To understand the potential power of the treaty, watch the actions of the fossil fuel industry and its growing new focus: petrochemicals. As demand from the transportation and other sectors is projected to decline, the industry is taking a page from The Graduate: Its great future is now in plastics. They don’t like this treaty and are investing heavily in its defeat. At a recent negotiating session in Ottawa, its lobbyists outnumbered the combined delegations from 87 countries. Their goal is to preserve the core business: extracting and selling oil & gas and producing plastics.

around 20-25 percent of the world’s carbon budget could be consumed by plastic by 2050, the equivalent of adding hundreds of new coal plants. 

This is why U.N. Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen says the treaty could be ‘the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord.’ While the climate philanthropists and world leaders put a lot of resources into the annual UNFCCC meetings, it’s now in their interest to learn how the Global Plastics Treaty could have an unexpectedly high return on investment. 

French President Emmanuel Macron says drilling to make disposable plastic, only to burn or bury it within months, is an ‘economic and ecological absurdity.’ Yet the problem isn’t only burning and burying it. Plastic and petrochemicals emit carbon and toxic chemicals at each stage of their lifecycle – from fossil fuel extraction and transport to petrochemical refining and manufacturing to managing or burning plastic waste to when plastic decomposes once it reaches our oceans and waterways. 

Even if the world succeeds in reducing emissions from sectors of the economy such as transportation or construction, our climate won’t notice the reduction if those emissions are supplanted by increased emissions from making plastic. In 2018, American petrochemical production emitted more than 80 million tons of greenhouse gases, and that number has only risen – and Exxon is now the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic resins. Their future is plastic.

Though the climate damage done by plastic is a relatively new concern, its broader environmental damage is nothing new. The equivalent of a garbage truck of plastic waste enters oceans and waterways every minute, and toxic chemicals threaten human health throughout the life cycle. And the status quo solution of recycling has not succeeded at scale, as only about 9 percent of plastic actually gets recycled.

That’s why there’s broad worldwide support for stopping plastic pollution at its source. A recent poll found 82 percent support reductions in plastic production, with support highest in countries long plagued by plastic pollution, like the Philippines (93 percent) and Indonesia (88 percent).

To leverage this moment, the Plastic Solutions Fund has helped establish the Global Plastics Treaty Fundraising Collective, an inclusive, cross-movement coalition of civil society organizations and networks dedicated to advancing an ambitious treaty. Active in more than 100 countries across the globe, these organizations are coordinating efforts between scientists, climate advocates, technical and policy experts, environmental justice campaigners, health professionals, and labor unions – representing a strong level of collaboration in service of the ambitious goal of a powerful and legally binding Plastics Treaty. 

There’s reason to believe this treaty could move the climate agenda faster than the UNFCCC processes that many foundations and philanthropists already engage with. More than 170 countries are now deeply negotiating on whether to reduce plastic production, eliminate toxic chemicals, and provide a just transition for workers. The treaty could be signed as early as 2025 and could significantly reduce how much plastic is made, detoxify the plastic life cycle, and create ambitious programs to bring back reuse systems globally.

To solve this climate and plastics problem, international agreements must require producer responsibility from the petrochemical industry, instead of placing the burden on municipalities and consumers to recycle their waste stream. Civil society and philanthropy have an opportunity to secure a treaty even more ambitious than the Paris Agreement, which is still arguing for production caps. Here, climate funders could turn off the tap and produce less carbon, all by limiting the production of plastic.

Nicky Davies is the Executive Director of the Plastic Solutions Fund, a consortium of 24 foundations working to stop the plastic pollution crises and has co-developed the Global Plastics Treaty Fundraising Collective.