APIC ’17: Chemical industry must innovate to meet climate deal goals

SAPPORO, Japan (ICIS)–Chemical industry must play a leading role in innovations that meet the challenges faced by a rise in global temperatures, Chairman of Japan Petrochemical Industry Association, Tsutomu Tannowa said on Friday.

“Last year was a memorable year. An international agreement that is extremely relevant to the petrochemical industry and that is essential to the sustainable future of humanity came into effect,” Tannowa said at the inaugural speech at Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) 2017 being held in Sapporo on 18-19 May.

“I am talking about Paris Agreement on Climate Change,” he said in his opening remarks at the annual conference.

The theme of this years’ APIC moot is: “The Promise of Carbon Chemistry: Pathway to a sustainable Future” and according to Tannowa a committee meeting on environment has been set up by the APIC to look into this area more closely.

“However, to hold the global temperature increase this century well below 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is a daunting challenge that will be difficult with our current technologies,” Tannowa said.

“Remarkable innovations are critical. Chemical industry must play a leading role in such innovations,” he added.