What is the impact of plastic on the climate?

This post is taken from the newsletter “Human warmth”sent every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. Every week, journalist Nabil Wakim, who hosts the podcast of the same name, answers questions from Internet users on the climate challenge. You can register for free by clicking here.

Question of the week

“Hello, I listened to your episode on plastic but ultimately it doesn’t talk that much about the climate, more about pollution in general. What is the impact of plastic on the climate? I can imagine that it is not good but do we know how to measure it? Thank you for your response. » Question asked by Sophie at chaud [email protected]

My response: Plastic is responsible for about 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly when produced from oil or gas, and a little due to emissions generated by its decomposition. This share is likely to increase enormously in the coming years, since the production of plastic is continuously increasing.

To find out more about the risks of plastic, you can find the episode with researcher Nathalie Gontard here.

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