2022 Conference Side Meetings

Date: Oct. 18, 2022

Time: 11:50am - 01:50pm (during lunch)

Room: 21

Contact: Lili Fuhr ([email protected])

Hosted by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).

Fossil fuels form the foundation of the petrochemical sector that manufactures chemicals from fossil fuel feedstocks. While the climate consequences of burning fossil fuels and the crisis of plastic pollution have garnered increasing public attention, the role and impact of agrochemicals as a third pillar of the fossil economy is too often overlooked. But at a time of surging fossil fuel and fertilizer prices and related impacts on food and energy security and with the climate crisis as a backdrop, the case for transitioning away from fossil fertilizer and pesticides has never been clearer. 

The fossil fertilizer industry and the processes it already uses to make its products hold the keys to a new model that purports to solve the climate challenge of hydrocarbon combustion by using the hydrogen and ‘managing’ the carbon. Through initiatives in carbon capture and storage (CCS) for “blue hydrogen” and “blue ammonia”, fertilizer companies are joining forces with the fossil fuel industry in exploiting false solutions to expand escape hatches while greenwashing (and mobilizing new subsidies for) fossil fertilizers. 

Our new report “Fossils, Fertilizers, and False Solutions: How an Industry Push to Launder Fossil Fuels in Agrochemicals Puts the Climate and the Planet at Risk” exposes this new harmful strategy and calls on governments to rapidly transition to resilient and regenerative models that enhance food and energy sovereignty and protect human rights. 

In this session, we want to present key findings from our report and jointly explore how we can establish agrochemicals as a new frontier in the fight against the fossil economy.