Fossils, Fertilizers, and False Solutions: How Laundering Fossil Fuels in Agrochemicals Puts the Climate and the Planet at Risk
(Center for International Environmental Law) Fertilizers and pesticides are interdependent inputs to a destructive food production model that is contributing to catastrophic biodiversity collapse, toxic pollution, and the violation of human rights. But there is an often-overlooked dimension of the threat posed by these agrochemicals: their fossil fuel origins. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides are fossil fuels in another form, making them an underrecognized but significant driver of the climate crisis. Further, the close ties between agrochemicals and fossil fuels mean that industrial food production is vulnerable to the volatility inherent in oil and gas markets, as starkly illustrated by the 2022 market shocks in food, fuel, and fertilizer prices.
For over a decade, the fossil fuel industry has been betting on petrochemicals (namely, plastics) to maintain profits as the world moves away from oil and gas as fuels. Fossils, Fertilizers, and False Solutions exposes how fossil fuel and fossil fertilizer companies are aligning to pursue a new escape hatch: one that purports to solve the climate challenge of hydrocarbon combustion by using the hydrogen and managing the carbon.
The fertilizer industry, and the processes it already uses to make its products, hold the keys to this new model. Largely unnoticed by media and civil society watchdogs, oil, gas, and agrochemical companies are partnering on a rapidly growing wave of new projects that would use carbon capture and storage (CCS) to produce fossil gas-based “blue” ammonia (and its “blue” hydrogen precursor), not only as a critical fertilizer input, but as a combustible fuel for transport and energy. Through such approaches, the fertilizer and fossil fuel companies seek to greenwash their polluting business, cash in on generous new subsidies for CCS, and access new markets as “clean energy companies.”
This report begins by summarizing synthetic fertilizer market trends, describing how chemical fertilizer is tied to fossil fuels through feedstocks, examining the 2022 food and fertilizer market disruptions, and calling attention to the ecological and climate impacts of synthetic fertilizers. It then explores how the fertilizer industry and fossil fuel producers are capitalizing on the climate crisis to open new avenues for profit and production by laundering their emissions through the chemicals and agriculture sector.
The corporate-controlled, input-reliant model of industrial agriculture is in need of a profound transformation to resilient, regenerative models that enhance food and energy sovereignty so that the ecosystems and communities that depend on them can thrive. The need for such a fundamental transformation is as urgent and as compelling as the global energy transition, the transition away from plastic pollution, and the transition to a world free of toxic chemicals. Those transitions can only be achieved if the common roadblock is removed: a fossil-fueled system that has captured politics and is burning, polluting, and poisoning people and the planet. At a time of surging fossil fuel, fertilizer, and food prices, and with the escalating climate crisis as a backdrop, the case for transitioning away from fossil fertilizer and from fossil fuels altogether has never been clearer.
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Contents
v Acronyms
vi Glossary
1 Executive Summary
3 Introduction
PART 1
7 Introduction
8 Petrochemical Growth and the Global Fertilizer Market
8 Petrochemicals Are a Major Driver of Oil and Gas Production
9 The Pervasive Overuse of Fossil Fertilizers: Production and Consumption Have
Risen for Decades
9 Figure 1: Global Nitrogen Fertilizer Production by Year
12 Agrochemicals Are Fossil Fuels in Another Form
12 Fossil Fertilizer: Nitrogen Fertilizer from Fossil Gas
13 Figure 2: Fossil Fuels to Fertilizers
14 Box 1: Petroleum-Based Pesticides Pollute and Poison
15 Market Shocks and Misguided Policy Responses Demonstrate the Peril of Tying
Food Production to Fossil Fuels
16 Misguided Policy Responses to the 2022 Food and Fertilizer Crises
16 Figure 3: Price of Fossil Fuels, Nitrogen Fertilizers, and Food, 1997–2022
18 Chemical Fertilizer Pollutes the Water, Air, and Soil
19 Figure 4: Agrochemicals Are Exceeding Multiple Planetary Boundaries
20 GHG Emissions from Fossil Fertilizer: Agrochemicals Are Heating the Planet
20 Ammonia Production Is Emissions-Intensive
21 Methane Emissions Are Vastly Underreported
21 Nitrogen Fertilizer Overuse Has Dramatically Raised Nitrous Oxide Levels
21 Urea Decomposition and Loss of Soil Organic Matter: Chemical Fertilizers
Emit Carbon Dioxide from Soils
22 Figure 5: Global Lifecycle GHG Emissions from Nitrogen Fertilizer
23 Agrochemical Dependency Is Disastrous for the Climate
24 Box 2: Corporate Producer Profiles: Who Profits from Fossil Fertilizer?
PART 2
27 Introduction
28 Hydrogen, Ammonia, and Carbon Capture as Fossil Fuel Enablers
29 CCS as a Lifeline for the Fossil Fuel Industry
30 Figure 6: Hydrogen Rainbow Spectrum
31 Hydrogen and Ammonia as Laundered Fossil Fuel
33 Fossil Fuel Interests Are Boosting Hydrogen and Ammonia
34 Hydrogen and Ammonia Present Significant Risks and Face Significant Challenges
35 Carbon Capture in the Fertilizer Sector
38 Figure 7: US Fossil Fertilizer and Blue Ammonia Buildout Plans
39 Box 3: The Deep and Pervasive Intersections Between the Fossil Fuel
and Fertilizer Industries
41 Fertilizer Companies Are Betting on Hydrogen and Ammonia
41 The Fertilizer Industry Sees Opportunity in Hydrogen and Ammonia
42 Agrochemical Companies Attempt to Green Their Image
44 Conclusion
45 Appendix
48 Endnotes
