Towards Planet Positive Chemicals: WBCSD unveils Chemical Transformation Roadmap

Geneva, 1 October 2024 – The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), in collaboration with nine leading chemical companies and sustainability consultancy ERM, has issued the “Towards Planet Positive Chemicals: A Chemical Transformation Roadmap Enabled by the Circular Economy” which aims to drive transformative change across the chemical industry and downstream manufacturing value chains. 

The urgency for change 

Chemicals play a pivotal role in virtually every sector from healthcare to energy, mobility or communication. However, their contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions (~6.3% in 2019) and environmental degradation are undeniable. WBCSD’s roadmap recognizes these challenges, calling for an urgent transformation in how chemicals are produced, used, disposed of and recycled. 

The industry and downstream manufacturing value chains must transition towards just, net-zero and nature-positive chemicals by 2050. This is necessary to contribute to restoring the safe operating conditions of Earth’s biosphere and crucial to maintaining the industry’s social license to operate. 

Six transformation pathways for 2050 

The roadmap lays out a shared vision centered on accelerating net-zero trajectories, reversing nature loss, and ensuring a just transition for workers and communities, enabled by a circular economy and sustainable chemistry. It utilizes a systems approach and looks at value chains holistically, articulating the transformation around six pathways and the related near-term actions:   

Three imperatives for the transformation

1. Net-zero chemicals: Commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all scopes (1, 2, and 3) by 2050. 

2. Nature-positive chemicals: Set the trajectory to halt and reverse the impact of chemicals on nature loss by 2030, with full recovery by 2050. 

3. A Just Transition for chemicals: Create transformative solutions that prioritize equity and wellbeing for workers, users and impacted communities across the entire value chain. 

These imperatives are supported by three enablers for transformation: 

1. Empowering a circular economy: Creating the regulatory, financial, and business conditions necessary for decoupling value creation from resource consumption and accelerate development of circular products & business models for chemicals. 

2. Activating sustainable chemistry: Leveraging sustainable chemistry innovations to drive solutions to climate, nature, safety and equity challenges. 

3. Combatting pollution: Implementing robust frameworks to address pollution throughout the entire value chain. 

A blueprint for collaboration  

This roadmap serves as a blueprint for collaboration for actors producing and relying on chemicals across value chains as well as their supporting systems (e.g. policy makers, financial institutions). 

It calls for crafting a supportive environment so that courageous decisions can be made to move from the current supply, asset base, solutions and business models toward just, net-zero, nature-positive chemicals. It also presents opportunities to innovate new value-generation models that provide growth perspectives and create market differentiation. 

Reflecting on this roadmap for collaborative action, Diane Holdorf, Executive Vice President at WBCSD, noted: “This aligned industry roadmap is a critical milestone for the chemical industry and manufacturing sectors relying on chemicals. It provides actionable pathways and identifies priorities for collaboration in which will transition value chains, secure business long-term resilience, and deliver the solutions required to build a more sustainable and equitable future. 

- Diane Holdorf, Executive Vice President at WBCSD

Time for action 

The roadmap was presented at a high-level roundtable event held during New York Climate Week on 24 September 2024. The event convened Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) from leading chemical companies and downstream manufacturing value chains partners to explore how cross-sector collaboration and C-suite leadership can accelerate its implementation. 

This event brought together key decision makers across values chains relying on chemicals. It was clear from the diversity of perspectives represented that the transformation of the chemical sector is inevitable and there is energy to collaborate to break down barriers and fast-track the shift toward net-zero and nature-positive chemicals.  

- Anne Laure Brison, Senior Manager, Circular Chemicals at WBCSD

Click here to access the full report. For more information on WBCSD’s work on Circular Chemicals, please contact Anne-Laure Brison.