Too Toxic to Ignore

The report details how petrochemicals, primarily plastics and nitrogen fertilizers, drive fossil fuel demand and contribute to a 'triple planetary crisis' of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. It highlights the significant health risks to workers and communities, particularly in Europe's Trilateral Chemical Region, and criticizes EU policy for prioritizing industry 'competitiveness' and speculative technologies like carbon capture over a phasedown of production.

• Petrochemicals are a primary driver of fossil fuel demand; in 2020, the EU 27 used nearly 15 percent of its final gas consumption and 14 percent of its final oil consumption for petrochemical manufacturing.
• The petrochemical sector is a major source of global and regional emissions, accounting for approximately 10 percent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally and 5 percent of total net GHG emissions in the EU as of 2021.
• Plastic production is the EU's largest industrial energy consumer, surpassing the food and steel sectors. In 2020, plastic production accounted for 38 percent of industrial oil consumption in the EU, with higher concentrations in the Netherlands (69%), Belgium (64%), and Germany (41%).
• Nitrogen fertilizers, which make up 72 percent of fertilizers used in the EU, are highly emissions-intensive. Ammonia production is noted as producing more CO2 than any other industrial chemical-making process.
• Petrochemical facilities cause severe health and environmental damage. A 2023 analysis of over 1,000 facilities in the Trilateral Chemical Region (Flanders, North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Netherlands) estimated that 125 million metric tons of chemicals were released since 2010, resulting in 24,640 years of healthy life lost.
• The EU petrochemical industry is currently shrinking and losing market share to China and the US. In response, industry lobbyists like Cefic have pushed for the 'Antwerp Declaration' and the 'Clean Industrial Deal' to prioritize 'competitiveness' and 'simplification' of regulations.
• The report argues that the EU's focus on 'clean tech' and carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a speculative mitigation strategy that fails to address the need for a production phasedown and may embolden the industry to continue polluting.

APA

Pastorelli, S. (2025). Too Toxic to Ignore. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Too-Toxic-to-Ignore.pdf

Chicago

Pastorelli, Silvia. Too Toxic to Ignore. Center for International Environmental Law, 2025. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Too-Toxic-to-Ignore.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pastorelli |first1=Silvia |title=Too Toxic to Ignore |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=2025 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Too-Toxic-to-Ignore.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pastorelli2025too, author = {Pastorelli, Silvia}, title = {{Too Toxic to Ignore}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2025}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Too-Toxic-to-Ignore.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }