Synthetic transitions: the political economy of fossil fuel as feedstock

While there is simultaneous policy and scholarly attention to the pollution crisis and the climate crisis, there is growing recognition that the two are intimately interconnected given the share of demand for future fossil fuel production created by synthetic materials. Drawing on theoretical resources from international political economy and beyond, we show how, though often neglected in climate debates and scholarship, petrochemicals sit at the intersection of a number of the primary drivers of the climate crisis, including fossil fuel production and industrial agriculture. The role of petrochemicals and their place in the global political economy of transitions, therefore, warrant greater empirical and critical conceptual scrutiny. Towards this end, we suggest conceptualising and acting upon the recognition that oil, gas and coal function as feedstock for industries central to the reproduction of modern capitalism, centring the challenge of ‘de-fossilisation’. Defossilisation goes beyond decarbonisation as emphasised in mainstream debates on energy transitions by introducing alternatives to the use of oil, gas and coal as raw materials for synthetics. This reorientation has important conceptual and strategic implications, revealing key tensions, contradictions and challenges for furthering just and sustainable transitions.