by The UK government is providing a €700m (£600m) guarantee to billionaire Jim Ratcliffe to build the largest petrochemical plant in Europe for 30 years which will accelerate plastic production.
Campaigners have described the massive petrochemical plant as a “carbon bomb”. Built in the Belgian city of Antwerp by the Ratcliffe company Ineos, it will bring plastic production to Europe on an unprecedented scale, just as countries try to negotiate a binding global treaty to tackle the growing problem of with plastic pollution.
More than 350m metric tonnes of plastic waste are produced each year, and by 2060 plastic waste is set to rise to 1bn metric tonnes. Antwerp is a major plastic production center in Europe and has created pollution from plastic pellets and emissions that exceed global warming, campaigners say.
But despite acknowledging the plant’s adverse impact on climate, biodiversity, the environment and the risks to social and human health, the British government has provided financial guarantees of €700m to support the construction of Project One in Antwerp.
The support from the UK Government’s Export Finance Department, an arm of the Department of Business and Trade, for Ratfliffe, who is now a high-profile part-owner of Manchester United Football Club, exceeds what the same department promised to African countries and polls. Adapting the Middle East to climate failure.
Ratcliffe has been lobbying politicians in Europe as they push back against green policies he says are driving investment away.
Project One will import fracked shale gas from the US, to supply the ethane for the cracker plant which produces 1450 kilograms of ethylene, which is the plastic building block, per year.
Details of the financial support from the UK government have emerged as environmental NGOs prepare a new legal challenge to stop the construction of Ratcliffe Project One. The UK government argues that its financial guarantees are in line with its support for a global transition towards net zero.
But Jacob Kean-Hammerson, from the UK’s Environmental Investigation Agency, said: “Ineos is a big part of the plastic production supply chain and the plastic producers themselves.
“By supporting this plant the UK government is funding a huge climate emissions project. What we need is more funds for climate related adaptation but the UK is giving potentially hugely more money to exporters than to countries to help them adapt to the impacts of change climate.”
Documents show that UK Export Finance (UKEF) is aware of the climate impact of Project One. “The project was considered to have the potential to create a number of adverse environmental and social impacts during construction and operation,” the UK documents said.
Officials conducted a “desktop review” rather than visiting the site at Antwerp. They said that a set of controls proposed as part of the project’s environmental and social management systems, if implemented effectively, should facilitate the management of these impacts”.
UKEF said Ineos had committed to be carbon neutral for Range 1 and 2 emissions 10 years after the start of operations, which therefore did not impede the EU’s ability to implement current climate policy or international commitments compliance, including the Paris agreement.
An Ineos spokesman said: “Project One will produce the raw materials required for medical products, insulation, transport and packaging. It will have the lowest carbon footprint of any similar plant in Europe. And by implementing state-of-the-art technology, it has a clear roadmap for carbon neutrality within 10 years of inception. Europe must be allowed to renew its manufacturing technology and we will vigorously defend this project in court.”
Plastic production, however, is very carbon intensive. Over 99% of plastic comes from fossil fuels and plastic production is the biggest industrial user of oil, gas and electricity in the EU, according to the NGO Break Free from Plastic. Fossil fuels cannot be replaced as a feedstock in the petrochemical industry, which Ineos admits.
Jeroen Dagevos, from the Plastic Soup Foundation, one of the Project One challenger NGOs, said: “There is already a big problem of plastic pollution from nerves in Antwerp and the Netherlands. This plant will bring US-scale plastic production to Europe. The crops are everywhere, and in the EU alone there are up to 23bn plastic bags in the environment every day.
“Plastic pollution is out of control. Almost half of plastic production today is for consumer goods, single-use packaging that will be thrown away. We need the industry to solve the pollution problem they have created, not build a huge new plant to dramatically increase plastic production.”
The UK said Ineos had promised that only 10% of the ethylene produced would be used for single-use plastic. The rest will be used for building materials, including pipes and cable ducting, according to UKEF.
Dagevos said: “How will they monitor this? There are no controls on who is buying the ethylene. This will increase the production of single-use plastic packaging and disposable consumer goods in Europe.”
A government spokesman said: “UK Export Finance helps UK businesses win, deliver and pay for overseas contracts.
“Our funding guarantee for Project One confirms new export opportunities and is consistent with our continued support for a global transition towards net zero.”
Ineos is publicly pushing back against scientific evidence on human health and the environment and climate related to plastic pollution. Research shows that microplastics have been found in human blood for the first time.
Global production of single-use plastic is fueling global warming and less than 10% of the 7bn tonnes of plastic waste generated worldwide is already recycled.
But Ratcliffe’s company says on its website that plastic is treated with “less emotion” and defends the production of single-use plastic, saying that less than 2g of a plastic package costs a cucumber. “This will extend its ‘shelf life’ by 11 days! A little bit of plastic will prevent a lot of food waste.”
