(iPoster) From Pollution to Climate: How Industry Reframed Life Cycle Analysis

• In Event: Poster Session: New Directions in International Political Economy

Abstract

Environmental regulation depends on sustained public support for legitimacy, yet industries often undermine it not only through lobbying but also by shaping the discourse around contested policies. In the plastics case, the petrochemical industry has long promoted misleading narratives, such as the claim that plastics are easily recyclable, to deflect attention from production caps.

This paper examines a subtler strategy: redefining key scientific concepts to obstruct regulation. I show how industry actors co-opt the term “life cycle analysis” (LCA), recasting it in narrow greenhouse-gas terms that obscure plastics’ broader environmental and health harms. Drawing on industry submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency, I trace how this usage diffused from trade associations and coalitions into regulatory documents and the public discourse over time.

The analysis identifies three patterns: industry adoption of an outlier LCA definition, coordination of standardized narratives portraying plastics as climate-friendly, and eventual convergence of regulators’ language with industry framing. By revealing how industry-sponsored content shapes public discourse and policy debates, the paper highlights a distinct form of the industry's discursive power in environmental governance.

Author

• Grace Zeng, Stanford University