by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:
(CD) United Nations talks over a proposed global plastics treaty ended Sunday with little concrete progress toward an agreement to curb the production, use, and waste of the polluting material after lobbyists for the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries showed up in force to prevent a breakthrough.
Negotiators convened last week in Nairobi, Kenya—a capital city inundated with plastic waste—with a mandate to make headway toward a legally binding global treaty regulating plastics, the production of which is expected to triple in the next several decades in the absence of government action.
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But AFPreported that “treaty terms were never really addressed, with a small number of oil-producing nations—particularly Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Russia—accused of employing stalling tactics seen at previous negotiation rounds to hinder progress.”
Additionally, as the Center for Biological Diversitynoted, the United States’ delegation “has not made any firm public commitments to push for measures that curb plastic production.” The United States generates the second-most amount of plastic waste per year behind China.
Critical roadblocks to progress are the industries that profit from plastic production, including Big Oil. Nearly all plastic is made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) has estimated.
Lobbyists for the fossil fuel and petrochemical sectors—which have been pressuring negotiators to oppose a deal that limits plastics production—made their presence felt during the third round of plastics treaty talks since last year, when nations agreed to develop a binding plastics treaty by 2024.
According to a CIEL analysis released last week, at least 143 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists registered to attend the latest session of talks in Nairobi, outnumbering the delegations of the 70 smallest countries combined.
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