11-12/2013 December Markets and Companies Information Technology The Middle East and China THE NEWSPAPER FOR THE Adaptability is more important are catching up to the than ever as the fourth industrial chemical-producing West. CHEMICAL AND revolution takes off. Page 5 LIFE SCIENCE MARKETS Page 9 N EWSFLOW Markets and Companies: ‘No Free Lunch’ Merck KGaA offers £1.6 billion for AZ Materials. Bjørn Lomborg on the Give and Take in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Allessa to cut a third of its work- force. New Thinking – Bjørn Lomborg plants over a 10-year period, be- tray the fact that there is no sense might not be a household name in DuPont says it will spin off its Per- of economic reality. We are not the chemical industry, but the mention formance Chemicals unit. going to cut carbon emissions sig- of his name in environmental activist nificantly, as long as it is very, very costly.” EU Commissioner demands unified circles seems to provoke one of two framework for shale gas in Europe. reactions: adoration or distain. Lom- Lomborg On The Energy Transition borg, a Danish academic who rose to China is looking for new targets for The 2011 Fukushima disaster its abundant fuel. notoriety in 2001 with his controversial rocked many countries using nu- book “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” clear power to the core; it seemed Dow gears up to sell its Chlor-Alkali that no one was more chilled than can be found on a handful of top 50 or and Epoxy units. German Chancellor Angela Merkel top 100 lists for the world’s top intel- and her reigning party of Christian More on Pages 2-8 ▶ Democrats. The German govern- lectuals and leaders; however, he also ment ultimately decided to suc- Under Construction: once found himself on the receiving cessively take all of its nine active end of a real-life Three Stooges scene nuclear power plants off the grid Merck KGaA says it will build a new Bjørn Lomborg, Director, by 2022. Germany, like many other pharma plant in China. when a critic of his theories smashed a Copenhagen Consensus Center Western countries, is working to- pie in his face at a book signing. ward a transition to a sustainable SABIC will start up its Yanbu PET is; perhaps a critic of current envi- economy through renewable energy, Plant in January. ronmental policy would be a better energy efficiency and sustainable Lomborg argues that current meas- description. development. However, the country’s Formosa Plastics is planning a $2 ures to halt global warming — spe- “The only place where I’ve abrupt departure from nuclear pow- cifically the Kyoto Protocol — are changed my pitch since 2001 was er has proven costly for consumers; billion ethane cracker in Texas. too expensive and non-effective, but my take on the Kyoto Protocol,” according to a recent article in the he generates most of the ire against Lomborg says. “Twelve years ago, Financial Times, the cost subsidiz- GSK will expand its Scottish plant. him with his standing that the cli- I pointed out that for every dollar ing green energy is expected to pass © Sergey Nivens - Fotolia.com More on Page 11 ▶ mate changes that are underway spent, probably 25 cents worth of $100 billion next year. are not as grave as many claim. His good was being done for the envi- Lomborg says, “Germany is one Chemicals: mantra is, “panic is rarely a good ronment. Not a great investment of few countries in the world that tables. At what point do the envi- Paris 2015 And Beyond basis for smart policy.” Lomborg … and in reality, it ended up being has significantly reduced its carbon ronmental benefits on one side out- Celanese aims to close two Euro- often takes the media and environ- much, much worse than that.” emissions, but it has also been done weigh the detriments on the other Governments of the world will try pean acetyls plants. mental activists to task for what he Criticism of the Kyoto Proto- at very, very great cost.” And he says side? once again to cobble together a suc- describes as exaggerating the num- col, which was created in 1997 in what works for Germany cannot “There is no such thing as a free cessful global warming pact in Paris bers on climate change in order to an effort to throttle human-made work for its less-affluent European lunch,” he says. “With fracking, as in 2015, where the next UN Confer- ECHA review finds no need to tigh- scare the general population into greenhouse gas emissions, is noth- neighbors. Spain, for example, has well as with anything else we do, ence on Climate Change will take ten TDI restrictions. action. ing new in both environmental and seen its subsidies for renewables go there is always going to be a trade- place. It is widely agreed that the “There is a tendency in the ac- economic circles. Many say the pro- up to €8.1 billion, almost 1 % of the off. There is no such thing as risk- 2009 Copenhagen conference was BASF to sell PVC modifiers business tivist camp to sort of keep pushing tocol doesn’t go far enough in limit- country’s GDP. free energy. Good regulation here is a complete flop, setting back the to Kaneka. that and keep only talking about ing emissions while others, such as “Spain obviously is not in a good key to minimizing the risks.” world’s movement to get a handle on the upper limit,” he says in an in- Lomborg, argue that the costs by place economically to be spending Lomborg argues that fracking global warming. While many UN of- BASF challenges the EU‘s Fipronil terview with CHEManager Europe. far outweigh the benefits. Rather more on green subsidies than they has the potential to cut carbon emis- ficials have presented themselves as restrictions. While Lomborg doesn’t deny that than spending money on frame- are for higher education,” Lomborg sion dramatically; it has probably optimistic, Lomborg has his doubts. there are scientists who have pro- works for greenhouse gas reduc- argues. He then makes the kind of cut U.S. carbon emissions about 400 “They are setting it up a little More on Pages 12-14 ▶ jected, for example, a drastic rise tion, Lomborg says money spent calculation he is famous for: “The to 500 megatons per year over the bit like Copenhagen in 2009, where in sea levels, he says there are also on R&D of green energy sources is net effect of all that spending over last three or four years, he says. He we are going to solve the climate People: scientists who claim won’t be any a more effective method of halting the next 20 years will postpone glob- compares that to the entire impact change and again have this grand rise. This is why he says he prefers climate change. al warming by the end of the century of the Kyoto Protocol, which he says treaty,” he said. “We need to get Stephan Sielaff has been named to defer to the UN’s Intergovern- “For every dollar spent on this by 62 hours.” has cut emissions by 250 megatons beyond that and look for another COO of Archroma. mental Panel on Climate Change as kind of R&D, we can probably avoid This argument goes hand in hand per year. solution.” being the most reliable source for about $11 of climate damage, “he with Lomborg’s main thesis. “So, the U.S. has done twice as However, Japan’s recent ac- Dr. Rolf Drewes has joined Song- such prognoses. However, the IPCC says. “This is much more than can “We need to focus spending on R&D; much as what the rest of the world knowledgement that its greenhouse- won as vice president Specialty has come under fire recently after be done with climate policies.” the only way you are going to get has done over 20 years, and they gas reduction target of 25 % below Chemicals publishing its Fifth Assessment on However, the protocol also has its people to switch to green energy in have not done it by giving up mon- 1990 levels is impossible to attain Climate Change in September. Ac- popular proponents, such as Former the long run is by making sure that ey,” he says. “In fact, the U.S. has has buoyed Lomborg’s hope that the More on Page 15 ▶ cording to Spiegel Online, several U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who per- the technology becomes so cheap that made $125 billion a year through world will come around to the idea renowned scientists say the report sonally negotiated for it in the U.S. everyone wants to buy it. If we could fracking. Compare that with the of an R&D-based approach to global is riddled with inconsistencies. Some in 1997. It was signed by President make solar cells and wind turbines $280 billion dollars the EU spends warming. have called the report too optimistic, Clinton that year, but was never rati- and all the other green energy sourc- each year to cut carbon emissions.” “Japan has simply given up on while others have said the report in- fied by the Senate, and the U.S. was es cheaper than fossil fuels, everyone But Lomborg stresses that he the approach to climate policy that cludes imprecise calculation on the never a participant in the protocol. would switch, also the Chinese and doesn’t think fracking is the long- has failed for the past twenty years.