We don’t have much time. We must act quickly to prevent potentially catastrophic social, political and economic damage from climate change.
Asian Chemical Connections
Global polymers and sustainability: how the industry could change over the next decade
By John Richardson MORE THAN 100 countries, including the US, are thought to favour a treaty being proposed at the next UN Environment Assembly in February and March that would set targets for reducing plastic waste in the environment, according to the BBC. I see this as great news, a step forward, as I was […]
Petrochemicals health warning: beware of vanishing feedstocks
By John Richardson NEW STEAM cracker projects are still being announced on the assumption that they will still be needed 20 years and more from now – well beyond full depreciation. One could argue this is reasonable given that it took some 50 years, from the introduction of the Model T to the development of […]
As the drift towards a divided world continues, here are some climate change realities
Note that, as always, the views expressed here are personal. Thank you. By John Richardson Executive Summary The big Western energy companies – the International Oil Companies (IOCs) – are selling hydrocarbon assets as they strive to meet more aggressive emissions targets, some of which have been set by environmental activists. The assets are being […]
The climate challenge can only be met if there is a global price on carbon
By John Richardson DEVELOPED WORLD oil and gas majors who faced rising investor pressure on greenhouse gas emissions accounted for just 15% of global energy production, said Jason Bordoff, co-founding Dean of the Columbia Climate School in this important article in Foreign Policy. The rest lay with the state-owned energy giants who were under far […]
The pandemic, climate change, plastic waste and the great divide: the world in 2025
By John Richardson NOBODY SHOULD be surprised that the developing world has fallen behind in the battle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the region is a long way from recovering from the pandemic. Evidence to this effect emerged last week in comments made by Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). […]
The new oil shocks: semiconductor supply shortages threaten the global economy
By John Richardson HIGH VALUE semiconductors, which are defined as five nanometres (billionths of a metre) or less in size, have become the new oil – as vital as the black stuff for the workings of the global economy. Semiconductors will, in fact, become even more important as the age of oil comes to an […]
Debate about refinery closures, re-configurations a harmful distraction for the petrochemicals business
In the second of a four-part series of blog posts that examines the paradigm shift confronting the petrochemicals industry – rising public and legislative pressure over plastic rubbish – I look at the harmful distraction of conventional thinking. Far too much of the debate within our industry is whether or not there will be enough […]
China new vehicle sales: A long term decline and what this means for petrochemicals
By John Richardson THE MAINSTREAM view is that there is nothing fundamental about the decline in new vehicle sales in China. Conventional analysis blames the 2018-2019 slump on the 50% cut in value-added taxes on new autos that came to end in December 2017. This brought forward demand as buyers scrambled to beat the end […]
Plastic waste crisis threatens 575m tonnes of global non-recycled PE demand
By John Richardson THE DEMAND growth for oil and other liquid fuels could be more than 50% lower up until 2040 under one scenario presented by BP in its latest Energy Review. This outcome would be the result of substantial growth in polymers recycling over the next 20 years. Oil majors are spending billions of […]