The world is facing an interconnected crisis caused by a variety of factors including climate change, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, and chemical waste. One of most prominent factors is the exploitation of limited resources to convert them into chemical products based on the traditional linear approach. This has been provocatively described as rubbish chemistry , a “bad, old-school” system that needs to be revised globally. Representing one of the largest and most complex industrial sectors around the globe and accounting for $4 trillion USD in sales in 2019, the chemical industry generates fundamental components to produce agrochemicals, plastics, paints, adhesives, coatings, electronics, and pharmaceuticals. However, most of these chemicals are made using oil and natural gas , corresponding to 99% of the feedstocks for downstream organic chemical production. Over 80% of the producing companies assert that sustainability has become as important to them as revenue growth, and both increasingly depend on recent advancements in digitalization .

中文翻译：

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数字化为可持续化学铺平道路：开启更多绿灯


世界正面临着由气候变化、水资源短缺、生物多样性丧失和化学废物等多种因素造成的相互关联的危机。最突出的因素之一是利用传统的线性方法将有限的资源转化为化学产品。这被挑衅性地描述为垃圾化学，是一种“糟糕的、老式的”体系，需要在全球范围内进行修订。化学工业是全球最大、最复杂的工业部门之一，2019 年销售额达 4 万亿美元，生产农用化学品、塑料、油漆、粘合剂、涂料、电子产品和药品的基本成分。然而，这些化学品大部分是用石油和天然气生产的，相当于下游有机化学品生产原料的 99%。超过 80% 的生产公司声称，可持续发展对他们来说与收入增长一样重要，并且两者都越来越依赖于数字化的最新进展。