Imagining circular carbon : A mitigation (deterrence) strategy for the petrochemical industry
Palm, Ellen LU
; Tilsted, Joachim Peter
LU
; Vogl, Valentin
LU
and Nikoleris, Alexandra
LU
(2024)
In Environmental Science and Policy
151.
- Abstract
Petrochemical producers both rely upon and generate some of the most problematic substances in the current age of socioecological crisis: fossil fuels and plastics. With mounting calls to cap fossil fuel extraction as well as plastics production, the industry appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Nonetheless, betting on continuously increasing global plastic demand, petrochemical production is expanding significantly. This predicament raises the question of how the industry attempts to square increasing petrochemical production with the need to address environmental issues. In recent years, leading actors in and around the industry have promoted notions of carbon circularity as a desirable mitigation strategy. In this... (More)
Petrochemical producers both rely upon and generate some of the most problematic substances in the current age of socioecological crisis: fossil fuels and plastics. With mounting calls to cap fossil fuel extraction as well as plastics production, the industry appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Nonetheless, betting on continuously increasing global plastic demand, petrochemical production is expanding significantly. This predicament raises the question of how the industry attempts to square increasing petrochemical production with the need to address environmental issues. In recent years, leading actors in and around the industry have promoted notions of carbon circularity as a desirable mitigation strategy. In this paper, we examine this strategy, using discourse analysis to uncover what we refer to as the imaginary of circular carbon. We highlight how the circular carbon imaginary risks delaying climate mitigation by rendering alternative mitigation pathways undesirable. It does so by reconciling increased production, carbon neutrality, and circular economy in a vision of a circular carbon economy, framing the climate crisis as an issue of carbon management. In the circular carbon economy, carbon dioxide, petrochemicals, and plastics all fit as mere flows of carbon. The circular carbon imaginary thereby helps future-proof the petrochemical industry in legitimizing its carbon-intensive practises essential to the fossil world order and the plastic crisis.
(Less)
- author
- Palm, Ellen
LU
; Tilsted, Joachim Peter
LU
; Vogl, Valentin
LU
and Nikoleris, Alexandra
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Carbon neutrality, Chemical industry, Circular carbon, Imaginary, Mitigation deterrence, Plastics
- in
- Environmental Science and Policy
- volume
- 151
- article number
- 103640
- pages
- 14 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85177235757
- ISSN
- 1462-9011
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.envsci.2023.103640
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research supported the research through the programme Mistra STEPS – Sustainable Plastics and Transition Pathways (F2019/1822). Joachim Peter Tilsted also received funding from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation through the project Petrochemicals and Climate Change Governance – Mapping Power Structures. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors
- id
- 0e96b171-a3e8-4ed6-a407-aaddc5627486
- date added to LUP
- 2023-11-27 08:20:40
- date last changed
- 2024-02-25 01:33:36
@article{0e96b171-a3e8-4ed6-a407-aaddc5627486,
abstract = {{<p>Petrochemical producers both rely upon and generate some of the most problematic substances in the current age of socioecological crisis: fossil fuels and plastics. With mounting calls to cap fossil fuel extraction as well as plastics production, the industry appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Nonetheless, betting on continuously increasing global plastic demand, petrochemical production is expanding significantly. This predicament raises the question of how the industry attempts to square increasing petrochemical production with the need to address environmental issues. In recent years, leading actors in and around the industry have promoted notions of carbon circularity as a desirable mitigation strategy. In this paper, we examine this strategy, using discourse analysis to uncover what we refer to as the imaginary of circular carbon. We highlight how the circular carbon imaginary risks delaying climate mitigation by rendering alternative mitigation pathways undesirable. It does so by reconciling increased production, carbon neutrality, and circular economy in a vision of a circular carbon economy, framing the climate crisis as an issue of carbon management. In the circular carbon economy, carbon dioxide, petrochemicals, and plastics all fit as mere flows of carbon. The circular carbon imaginary thereby helps future-proof the petrochemical industry in legitimizing its carbon-intensive practises essential to the fossil world order and the plastic crisis.</p>}},
author = {{Palm, Ellen and Tilsted, Joachim Peter and Vogl, Valentin and Nikoleris, Alexandra}},
issn = {{1462-9011}},
keywords = {{Carbon neutrality; Chemical industry; Circular carbon; Imaginary; Mitigation deterrence; Plastics}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Environmental Science and Policy}},
title = {{Imagining circular carbon : A mitigation (deterrence) strategy for the petrochemical industry}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2023.103640}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.envsci.2023.103640}},
volume = {{151}},
year = {{2024}},
}