Suez, which describes itself as “a global leader in circular solutions for water and waste”, has joined the Global Impact Coalition (GIC). The firm has also committed to providing the coalition with its expertise in recycling and recovery, which are seen as essential to achieving the chemical industry's net zero and circularity targets. This includes collaborating with the industry on new circular business models and scaling up sustainable technologies.

The Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), a collaboration between the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, the Climate Disclosure Project and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to drive corporate climate action, has validated the latest greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) targets of three chemical companies as both science-based and aligned with the UN Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5ºC this century.

Chemours has announced plans to achieve a 60% absolute reduction of operations-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. It warned, however, that achieving this “will require significant collaboration in both the public and private sectors to deliver technological innovation and government policies that enable and incentivise the transition to a greener economy”.

DSM, Bayer, Symrise, Henkel and Takasago International are among 155 companies signing a joint release by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the UN Global Compact, and the We Mean Business coalition. This urged governments “to align their Covid-19 economic aid and recovery efforts with the latest climate science” and “prioritise a faster and fairer transition from a grey to a green economy”, with net zero carbon emissions.