Bloomberg turns sights on plastic plants

WASHINGTON: Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a

$US85 million ($NZ145.8 million) campaign to block the planned construction of plastic and petrochemical plants across the United States yesterday, modelled on his decadelong effort to shutter coal plants.

Bloomberg, the billionaire businessman who now serves as a United Nations special envoy on climate ambition, said his philanthropic organisation’s Beyond Petrochemicals campaign would ‘‘turbocharge’’ efforts by communities in places like Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, Texas, and Appalachia to block the permitting and construction of heavy emitting plants.

The campaign takes aim at the rapid expansion of US petrochemical and plastic pollution. The International Energy Agency said the plastics and petrochemical industry would exceed coalfired carbon emissions by 2030 and account for half of the growth in oil demand by 2050.

‘‘This campaign will help ensure more local victories, support laws that protect communities from harm, and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling the climate crisis,’’ Bloomberg said.

The expansion planned by the industry could account for 15% of US greenhouse gas emissions, which could make the US miss its goal under the Paris climate agreement of halving its emissions by 2030, Bloomberg Philanthropies said.

At least 90 petrochemical and plastics projects have been proposed over the last decade, including 42 major construction projects that will release greenhouse gas emissions and other hazardous air pollutants, according to the Environmental Integrity Project, which tracks the planned projects.

Plastic and petrochemical trade groups called Bloomberg’s campaign a ‘‘misguided’’ effort to address plastic waste.

‘‘If Mr Bloomberg wants to help people, it couldn’t be more clear that plastic saves lives and improves our quality of life,’’ president and chef executive of the Plastics Industry Association Matt Seaholm said, adding that the industry had focused on recycling programmes.

‘‘His misguided campaign will create more problems than it solves’’.

Communities that live where some of these projects have been proposed have led highprofile fights to block key air permits and force enforcement of environmental safeguards at existing facilities.

This month, activists in St James Parish in Louisiana claimed victory when a judge revoked key air permits issued by state regulators for a plastics project planned by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics and when the state cancelled plans to build a methanol plant.

‘‘Investments like these give the communities that have been disproportionately impacted by this type of environmental racism a fighting chance,’’ said Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Centre for Environmental Justice.

Bloomberg has spent more than $US500 million to support the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, which originally aimed to retire 30% of the US coal fleet by 2020 but ended up accelerating the retirement of more than 60% of coal plants by that year. It has expanded to target gas infrastructure.

After a failed presidential bid in 2020, Bloomberg has continued to bankroll climate campaigns and work on climate diplomacy in his UN role.