The British government is giving billionaire Jim Ratcliffe a €700 million guarantee to build the largest petrochemical plant in Europe in 30 years that will boost plastic production.
The huge petrochemical plant has been described by campaigners as a ‘carbon bomb’. It is being built in the Belgian city of Antwerp by Ratcliffe’s company Ineos and will bring plastic production to Europe on a scale never seen before, just as countries try to negotiate a binding global treaty to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution.
More than 350 million tons of plastic waste are produced per year, and by 2060, plastic waste is expected to increase to 1 billion tons. Antwerp is a major plastic production center in Europe and has caused pollution from plastic pellets and emissions that are boosting global warming, campaigners say.
But despite admitting the plant’s negative impacts on climate, biodiversity, the environment and social and human health risks, the UK government has provided financial guarantees worth €700 million to support the construction of Project One in Antwerp.
The support from the British government’s export finance arm, a division of the Department for Business and Trade, to Ratfliffe, now a high-profile co-owner of Manchester United Football Club, exceeds the support the same department has promised for countries in Africa and the United States. Middle East must adapt to climate collapse.
Ratcliffe lobbies politicians in Europe to oppose green policies that he claims are driving away investment.
Project One will import fracked shale gas from the US to supply the ethane for the cracker plant that will produce 1,450 kilotonnes of ethylene, the building block of plastic, per year.
Details of the British government’s financial support emerged as environmental NGOs prepared a new legal challenge to stop Ratcliffe from building Project One. The UK government says its financial guarantees are in line with its support for a global transition to a net zero climate.
But Jacob Kean-Hammerson, from Britain’s Environmental Investigations Agency, said: “Ineos is a big part of the plastic production supply chain and of the plastic manufacturers themselves.
“By supporting this plant, the UK government is funding a huge climate emissions project. What we need is extra funding for climate-related adaptation, but Britain is giving more money to a potentially big emitter than to countries to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
Documents show that UK Export Finance (UKEF) is aware of the climate impact of Project One. “It was considered that the project had the potential to cause a number of adverse environmental and social impacts, both during construction and operation,” the British documents said.
Officials conducted a “desktop review” instead of visiting the site in Antwerp. They said a “proposed set of controls 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 pledged to become carbon neutral for Scope 1 and 2 emissions ten years after commencing operations, which will therefore strengthen the EU’s ability to meet current climate-related policies or international obligations, including the Agreement of Paris, not hindered.
An Ineos spokesperson said: “Project One will produce the raw material essential for medical products, insulation, transport and packaging. The factory will have the lowest carbon footprint compared to any factory of its kind in Europe. And by applying cutting-edge technology, it has a clear roadmap to carbon neutrality within 10 years of launch. Europe must be allowed to innovate its production technology and we will vigorously defend this project in court.”
However, plastic production is extremely carbon intensive. More than 99% of plastic comes from fossil fuels and plastic production is by far the largest industrial user of oil, gas and electricity in the EU, according to the NGO Break Free from Plastic. Fossil fuels cannot be replaced as raw materials in the petrochemical industry, Ineos acknowledges.
Jeroen Dagevos, from the Plastic Soup Foundation, one of the NGOs challenging Project One, said: “There is already a huge problem of plastic pollution from nurdles in Antwerp and the Netherlands. This factory will bring American-scale plastic production to Europe. The nurdles are everywhere; In the EU alone, up to 23 billion plastic nurdles enter the environment every day.
“Plastic pollution is out of control. Nearly half of today’s plastic production consists of consumer goods, single-use packaging that will be thrown away. We need the industry to solve the problem of the pollution they have created, not build a huge new factory to massively increase plastic production.”
Britain said Ineos had pledged that only 10% of ethylene produced would be used for single-use plastics. The remainder will be used for construction goods, including pipes and cable ducts, according to UKEF.
Dagevos said: “How are they going to monitor this? There is no control over who buys the ethylene. This will only boost the production of single-use plastic packaging and disposable consumer goods in Europe.”
A government spokesperson said: “UK Export Finance helps UK businesses win, deliver and get paid for overseas contracts.
“Our financing guarantee for Project One secures new export opportunities and is consistent with our continued support for a global transition to net zero.”
Ineos publicly opposes scientific evidence of human health and the environmental and climate impacts of plastic pollution. Research shows that microplastics have been found in human blood for the first time.
The global production of single-use plastics is fueling global warming and less than 10% of the 7 billion tons of plastic waste already produced worldwide has been recycled.
But Ratcliffe’s company says on its website that plastic should be treated with “less emotion” and defends the production of single-use plastics, saying less than 2 grams of plastic packaging protects a cucumber. “This extends the ‘shelf life’ by 11 days! A little bit of plastic prevents a lot of food waste.”