Chemicals build 96 per cent of EU manufactured goods. From pharmaceuticals to electronics to fertilisers, they’re everywhere. Yet most people have never heard of the industry’s climate impact.

That invisibility is costly. The chemicals industry is Europe’s third largest CO₂ emitter, topped only by steel and cement. And when the International Energy Agency assessed progress toward net-zero, they rated chemicals as “not on track”. The reason? The sector is seen as too complex for regulation, so it’s overlooked by policymakers and civil society alike.

But complexity isn’t an excuse for inaction. Together, we can chart a credible path to reducing the sector’s climate impact.

Bringing the Climate Catalyst model to chemicals

Given its complexity and limited progress on chemicals’ climate impact to date, it felt like a sector where the Climate Catalysts “consult, convene and catalyse” model could bring significant impact. In mid-2025, we began a mapping project on behalf of the Global Industry Hub, a coalition driving industrial decarbonisation, and the European Climate Foundation.

This project replicated our consult phase, focusing on the European chemical industry.

The goal: map the civil society players addressing chemicals’ climate impact to understand where efforts were concentrated, and where they were lacking. This process was designed to identify the leading opportunities for civil society to pursue that could put the chemicals industry on the pathway to net-zero.

The challenge

The chemicals industry is the cornerstone of the economy. It touches everything from pharmaceuticals to electronics to fertilisers. And it is largely “invisible” to the public. But, its contribution to climate change is significant.

The EU’s share of the global chemical market has declined from 27 per cent to 14 per cent over the last 20 years. Growing international competition and higher energy costs mean markets are unlikely to favour lower-carbon production on their own. Regulatory intervention is essential.

Our approach

We set out to build a clearer picture of the European chemicals ecosystem. We conducted structured interviews with ten organisations already working on this topic, and surveyed an additional 28. Using those insights alongside extensive desk research, we developed three outputs:

• Stakeholder map & database: We mapped over 300 active civil society players, influencers and allies in chemical decarbonisation, alongside relevant policymakers and private sector actors. This included a searchable database of information on civil society actors’ campaign strategies, how they interact with key targets, and connections among organisations.
• Policy timeline & database: We identified opportunities for policy advocacy and mapped them on a timeline. We looked at European policy areas that impact the chemical value chain across multiple themes: climate action, environment, innovation and trade. We also identified over 50 policies at both the EU and national levels. Several of which were actively being planned or under development in the short- to medium-term, offering immediate advocacy opportunities.
• Power maps: Finally, we produced stakeholder maps with embedded power analyses. These showed which partners and messengers could be mobilised, which targets would need to be influenced and which opponents neutralised for civil society’s desired policy outcomes to be secured. This involved assessing existing levels of knowledge, trust and connections within the civil society community and the wider stakeholder system.

For each opportunity, we mapped who has the power to influence progress, who are our potential allies and influencers, and who we’re trying to engage.

What we learned

Our mapping exercise yielded several important insights:

1. Civil society’s capacity to tackle chemicals’ climate impact is severely limited. Of the 28 NGOs who responded to our survey, the vast majority (21) reported having two or fewer full-time staff dedicated to chemicals. Five reported having zero full-time staff, meaning that they were addressing this topic with unfunded staff time. And, this limited capacity was dispersed across many different geographical, strategic and topical areas. We concluded that this was insufficient to meet the challenge of reducing the climate impact of such a complex industry.

2. Progress is hampered by tensions among climate, health, and environmental goals. The priorities of the civil society organisations we surveyed were not only diverse but sometimes contradictory. Many solutions to bring down chemical value chains’ emissions have tradeoffs for human health or the environment, and vice versa. This means that civil society actors may be inadvertently undermining one another’s goals, limiting what we can collectively achieve.

3. 2026 offers key windows of opportunity for civil society to influence EU policy files. According to the organisations we surveyed and our own insights, the policies offering the greatest opportunity in 2026 to pave the way for a more climate-friendly chemicals industry are the implementation of the Chemicals Industry Action Plan, EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) — the EU’s carbon pricing mechanism — and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) — a carbon tariff on imported goods.

This year, the ETS is set to be revised, and CBAM has now been implemented. Both are expected to face continued and ever-stronger opposition from industry. Coordinated civil society actions could secure the inclusion of critical chemicals beyond fertilisers in CBAM and ensure full accounting for the chemicals value chain in the ETS.

Based on these and additional insights, we identified four key interventions that would allow civil society to put the chemical industry on the pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050:

• Build alignment of NGOs across the climate, health and pollution movements
• Raise chemicals’ climate impact in the public consciousness
• Activate philanthropy to allow civil society action to keep pace with its ambition
• Collectively advocate for key EU files to ensure the best outcomes for the climate, the environment and human health

What’s next

Building from these conclusions, we’re now in the convene phase of our approach. We’re bringing together NGOs working on the climate, health and environmental angles of the chemical industry’s impact. Our goal is to identify a common vision which can centre joint advocacy efforts around EU chemical policies, which we will then take forward in the catalyse phase as part of our European chemicals programme.

We’ve used our consult process to shape the direction of our programmes on steel decarbonisation, peatland restoration, sustainable aviation and heavy emitting industries in different geographies. Our aim is to produce outputs at pace that we share with stakeholders and can be used to inform programme design within the wider civil society community.

If you are interested in working with Climate Catalyst to rapidly identify the opportunities to unlock transformative change for the climate in a given sector, please get in touch below. For more information or if you’d like a copy of the resources mentioned in this case study, drop us a message and a member of our chemicals team will be in touch.

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