The petrochemicals industry needs to address its "disastrous" public image in light of its importance to sustainable economic development, according to a senior executive of the French energy group Total.
"The electric car will be plastic," Francois Cornelis, the president of the company's chemicals division, told a forum of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association in Dubai.
Solar panel technology would "migrate" from inorganic crystal silicon to organic polymers, made from hydrocarbon feedstock, he predicted, enabling renewable energy to power a "brand new" range of electronic devices and consumer products.
Mr Cornelis even sees the day when plastics "lighter than aluminium and stronger than steel" will replace most metals in the transportation and construction sectors and in most manufactured goods. Some recently developed polymers - the products of nano-scale molecular engineering - are excellent conductors of heat and electricity, making them candidates for replacing metals, he added.
Some of the likely environmental consequences of the unfolding revolution in polymer science include the development of lighter vehicles and aircraft with lower fuel requirements, cheaper and lighter batteries to power the plug-in cars of the future, and fewer disruptive and polluting mining operations worldwide.