Date Released
May 2025
This report from the Plastics & Climate Project and the Environmental Law Institute investigates the state of scientific knowledge about the ways that plastics are impacting climate change. Synthesizing the latest peer-reviewed scientific research, the report systematically maps out three pathways through which plastics affect the climate. Plastics emit greenhouse gases throughout their lifecycle, might disrupt key ecosystem processes essential to sequestering carbon, and could affect how the Earth reflects and absorbs energy. The report also proposes an agenda for future research and policy recommendations to fill critical knowledge gaps in the plastics-climate nexus.