Europe’s biggest petrochemical plant in 30 years a ‘carbon bomb’, court to hear

theguardian.com:

The biggest petrochemical plant to be built in Europe in 30 years will be a “carbon bomb” that will worsen the climate crisis and threaten human life, environmental groups including the NGO ClientEarth will argue in court.

Fuelled by ethane from shale gas fracking in the United States, the “cracking” plant to be built in Antwerp by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company Ineos will create ethylene and contribute directly to huge increases in plastic production on a scale not seen in Europe, they argue.

ClientEarth and 13 other organisations will say in a Flemish court on Tuesday that the plant, known as Project One, should never have been given the go-ahead by authorities. They say the permit infringes EU environmental regulations and will adversely affect the climate, air quality and human health, as well as protected natural areas.

Increased global heating, pollution from plastic pellets, excessive nitrogen deposits, particularly in protected natural areas, and the health implications of increased air pollution from the cracking plant are all cited as serious negative affects of the plant going ahead.

“This will be the largest petrochemical plant in Europe to be built in the last 30 years,” said Tatiana Lujan, a lawyer from ClientEarth. “It is a carbon bomb which will impact human health and the environment.

“In the time this case has been running, the evidence of the environmental and human harm that extracting and using petrochemicals to make plastics has snowballed. Meanwhile Ineos continues to fight to grow the industry.

“We’re in court to make sure that the true impacts of Project One are heard and understood, and the right decisions are made.”

ClientEarth and its partners, which include organisations fighting plastic pollution, say