Harnessing Green Demand to Drive Sustainable Chemicals Production

This briefing by RMI and the Center for Green Market Activation (GMA) outlines the challenges of decarbonizing the chemicals sector and proposes a strategy combining demand aggregation and 'book and claim' systems to unlock investment in low-emissions production technologies.

• Chemical production is a significant source of global emissions, contributing approximately 2 billion metric tons, which represents about 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. The sector faces a challenge where production is projected to grow by up to 43% by 2050, necessitating urgent action to reduce fossil input reliance and lower emissions.
• The scale-up of low-emissions chemical technologies is primarily hindered by commercial barriers rather than technical feasibility. These barriers include risk-aversion across complex value chains and uncertainty regarding demand for low-emissions products, exacerbated by the high capital intensity and long investment horizons of chemical assets.
• The complexity of chemical value chains, which involve thousands of different molecules and multiple layers of intermediaries, creates a coordination challenge. Intermediate producers with thin margins lack incentives to source higher-cost low-emissions inputs unless there is certainty that downstream customers will pay a price premium.

APA

RMI (2026). Harnessing Green Demand to Drive Sustainable Chemicals Production. https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-green-demand-to-drive-sustainable-chemicals-production/

Chicago

RMI. Harnessing Green Demand to Drive Sustainable Chemicals Production. 2026. https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-green-demand-to-drive-sustainable-chemicals-production/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Harnessing Green Demand to Drive Sustainable Chemicals Production |date=7 May 2026 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-green-demand-to-drive-sustainable-chemicals-production/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2026harnessing, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Harnessing Green Demand to Drive Sustainable Chemicals Production}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2026}, month = may, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/harnessing-green-demand-to-drive-sustainable-chemicals-production/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }