Polymer Premium

Download our Delegates' resource now to support the Upstream Financing Mechanism - Polymer Premium.

The Polymer Premium

A $350 - $500 billion finance gap exists between our ambition to protect our children’s health and environment and the current funding sources available.

For 6-8 cents a kilo, paid by producers of primary plastic polymers, we can address this gap and meet our ambition.

Six to eight cents to deliver an extraordinary outcome.

Six to eight cents a kilo to prevent 617 million tonnes of plastic waste by 2040. [1]

The need for a polymer premium

The OECD [1] has found that to avoid a plastic pollution health and environment crisis we need more than downstream measures. An upstream measure, at the start of the plastic lifecycle is required.

Minderoo Foundation believes that this measure should be a small fee imposed on producers of primary plastic polymers. The fee would be charged per tonne of primary plastic polymer produced which equates to a few cents per kilo.

Who pays?

Minderoo Foundation is inviting producers to be accountable for their fair share of the harm caused by plastic pollution.

By fair share, we mean a standardised contribution across industry around the world. Meaning, no single producer is responsible for the entire industry.

By standardising contributions across industry, producers will support an extraordinary transformation and be part of the solution.

The extraordinary future

The Polymer Premium will provide funding for:

Construction and refurbishment of existing infrastructure in two key areas – sustainable waste management and upstream industry transformation
Supporting a country in their just transition away from plastic
Addressing legacy waste
Human health research and monitoring.

Learn more about this process and how different countries will be impacted.

Discover how it will be gathered

Discover how it will apply to countries

It’s common for companies to be held accountable for their actions through international or regional frameworks.

Oil Pollution Compensation Fund

The International Oil Spill Compensation Fund is governed by three treaties - International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, International Convention on the establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage and the Protocol of 2003 to the 1992 Fund Convention.

Under these treaties:

a contribution is collected from companies for pollution caused by oil spills
revenues are redistributed to the countries or people affected
the rate is agreed to by countries party to the treaty
the rate of the contribution is uniformed, creating a level playing field.

Paris Rulebook

Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement established a mechanism to contribute to the reduction of Green House Gases.

The mechanism is:

Companies with approved projects provide a 5 per cent ‘share of proceeds’ to a centralised ‘Global Adaption Fund’.
Revenues are redistributed from this fund to the Global South.
The fee rate is uniform, irrespective of where the credit is generated, creating a level playing competitive field for companies.

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Footnotes

[1] OECD (2024), Policy Scenarios for Eliminating Plastic Pollution by 2040, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/76400890-en