Policy brief Plastic Production Reduction: The Climate Imperative Introduction:

The full life cycle of plastic starts with the extraction of fossil fuels, which provide both the feedstock and the energy source for plastic production. [...] In 7 Karali, Khanna, and Shah, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a “Climate Impacts of Plastics Production.” special report documenting the dire consequences of breaching the 1.5°C limit.5 The key to meeting this goal is the carbon budget: the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that humanity can emit without exceeding 1.5°C rise. [...] The plastics treaty must therefore define the “full life cycle” of plastic as beginning with the extraction phase to align with the Paris Agreement and the treaty’s own mandate as stated in UNEA Resolution 5/14. [...] evaluate the emissions of plastic production to 2050, finding 10 The range is due to different projections for the that primary plastic production will consume 21-31% of the global carbon growth of plastic budget in the next quarter-century.10 The world can ill afford to spend so production as well as different carbon budgets. [...] The results depend primarily on the allotment of the carbon budget and secondarily on the degree of safety desired around achieving the 1.5°C goal as reflected in the IPCC’s likelihood estimate of meeting this goal.