Too big to ignore: Carbon Performance and the $2 trillion chemical sector

08/09/2026

Companies in the chemicals sector are major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters but also play a critical role in the low-carbon transition by providing the technologies and materials needed to decarbonise other parts of the economy. The sector is one of the world’s largest manufacturing industries by market capitalisation and the largest industrial consumer of fossil fuels.
 
At our webinar on 8 September, we presented our novel approach to assessing the chemicals sector, alongside key findings from the recent assessment of 23 of the largest companies in this sector. 35% of the 23 companies are headquartered in Asia Pacific and 39% are in North America.

The webinar began with a presentation to set out the unique challenges involved in assessing the sector, including:
  • Product heterogeneity
  • Embodied GHG emissions
  • Disconnect between direct emissions and revenue 
  • Integrated business models
 
The presentation also explained key decisions regarding subsector benchmarks that allow our analysts to closely match company profiles, ensuring more accurate assessments. The panel discussion that followed brought together academic, industry and investor perspectives, which shared their reactions to the assessment results and outlined the barriers and enablers to financing the transition in this unique sector.
 
You can watch the replay of the webinar below

Speakers

We take this opportunity to thank our speakers for sharing their insights. We hope you find the webinar insightful. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts through this post-webinar survey so that we can maintain the relevance of our research to the objectives of our stakeholders. We look forward to your continued engagement with our work.



Photo credit: Moritz Kindler on Unsplash