The UK Alliance for Sustainable Chemicals and Materials unites industry, academia, and innovation centres to create a single, cohesive voice advocating for sustainable chemicals and materials.
Manufactured chemicals and materials are in everything we use in our daily lives
Plastics, food, textiles, energy, batteries, defence products, mobile phones, and medicines. They are vital to our food security, the clothes we wear, heating our homes, affording national security, enabling communications, and delivering treatments for diseases.
Chemicals needs carbon as both an energy source for manufacturing and as a feedstock
Unlike energy, which can rely on non-carbon sources, chemicals (and many materials) require carbon as a feedstock. Today, almost all chemicals are manufactured from fossil oil-and-gas , and are responsible for ~10% of Global-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions. The UK must transition to circular carbon sources, such as biomass (e.g. forestry and agricultural wastes), chemical recycling (e.g. plastic waste), and captured carbon, to produce sustainable chemicals and materials.
A once-in-a-generation opportunity
Sustainable chemicals and materials designed, developed, and manufactured in the UK offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure new UK industries. Building from our world-leading expertise in sustainable technologies, we can create a resilient engine for net-zero, securing and growing hundreds-of-thousands of highly skilled and productive jobs.
Potential to generate upwards of £544 billion of annual revenue for the UK by 2050
The transition to a more sustainable chemicals and materials sector in a well-functioning circular economy will enable the UK to achieve its net zero commitment and ambition to reduce waste and pollution. With the right support, this sector also has the potential to generate upwards of £544 billion of annual revenue for the UK by 2050.
To achieve this step-change, we urge the UK Government to:
● Devise a long-term roadmap and a stable policy environment to enable investment in research, development, commercialisation and manufacture of sustainable chemicals and materials, to benefit communities across the UK and achieve green economic growth.
● Work with the chemicals and materials sector to ensure the UK landscape supports this growth, from feedstocks to infrastructure and skills, to ensure the development of resilient UK supply chains.
● Develop and implement policies shaping markets to enable the UK’s transition to sustainable chemicals and materials, including the leveraging of public procurement to create demand for sustainable chemicals and products manufactured in the UK
To join the alliance, contact Jen Vanderhoven: jen.vanderhoven@bbia.org.uk
UK ASCM members include:
