Clean Energy 101: The Chemicals and Climate Connection

This briefing by RMI explains the chemicals industry's role in global greenhouse gas emissions and its critical importance to the clean energy transition, while outlining the complexities and strategies required for its decarbonization.

• The chemicals industry is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing between 4 percent and 6 percent of global emissions, a level of impact similar to that of the steel industry.
• Chemicals are essential to modern manufacturing and the energy transition, appearing in 96 percent of manufactured goods and underpinning over 75 percent of emission reduction technologies, such as refrigerants for heat pumps and ethylene vinyl acetate for solar panels.
• Decarbonizing the chemicals sector is complex because emissions occur across the entire supply chain—including production, use, and disposal—and production volumes are expected to grow by 2050.
• RMI identifies three primary solution areas for reducing the industry's climate impact: reducing overall demand through circular economy principles, improving process and energy efficiency (including replacing fossil fuel heat with hydrogen and renewables), and transitioning to defossilized feedstocks and production pathways.
• There is a risk that industry incumbents will prioritize carbon capture and storage (CCS) and existing fossil fuel feedstocks over renewable-sourced alternatives if investment in optimal paths is not prioritized now.

APA

RMI (2024). Clean Energy 101: The Chemicals and Climate Connection. https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-the-chemicals-and-climate-connection/

Chicago

RMI. Clean Energy 101: The Chemicals and Climate Connection. 2024. https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-the-chemicals-and-climate-connection/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Clean Energy 101: The Chemicals and Climate Connection |date=25 July 2024 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-the-chemicals-and-climate-connection/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2024clean, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Clean Energy 101: The Chemicals and Climate Connection}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2024}, month = jul, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/clean-energy-101-the-chemicals-and-climate-connection/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }