Across all pathways, the key to delivering net-zero emissions lies in balancing carbon flows, a challenge which is unique to the chemical industry where carbon is embedded in products. Figure compares embedded carbon in feedstocks (sourcing and production) and carbon destinations (end-of-life treatments) for chemical products. At each of the three levels, carbon flows need to be balanced to achieve net-zero emissions. First, the use of fossil-based feedstocks must be balanced with sequestration technologies (CCS of emissions or landfilling of products at end-of-life). CCS allocation to the chemicals industry is limited (assumed to be 470 Mt C or 1.75 GtCO2eq in 2050), placing a cap on the use of fossil-based feedstocks. Second, carbon in discarded chemical products can be recycled as a feedstock for new products. However, collection, sorting and recycling processes for plastics are imperfect, some plastics are challenging to recycle, and plastic material is degraded during recycling, limiting the available carbon from recyclates (~30 Mt C via pyrolysis, 74 Mt C via municipal waste gasification, 139 Mt C via reuse and recycling). Third, chemical products incinerated at end-of-life release carbon to the atmosphere, so must be discontinued or abated with carbon captured from the air, using bio-based feedstocks or DAC/CCU technologies. However, biomaterials are limited in supply (~350 Mt C) and DAC/CCU technologies are costly, energy-and resource-intensive.