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Sunday, June 4th, 2023

Global plastic treaty talks limp on despite blockade by oil-rich countries

Author:     LEONIE CATER
Source:     Politico
Publication Date:     JUNE 2, 2023 | 8:56 PM CET
 Link: Global plastic treaty talks limp on despite blockade by oil-rich countries
Stephan:  

Do you want to see the true scale of greed and profit? Consider this report. The evidence for the negative effects of plastic pollution are as strong as anything we know about the climate. And yet Saudi Arabia and Brazil tried to block an international agreement to address this problem. That’s money over human wellbeing, and there can be no question of that.

“After a week of negotiations, the world is one step closer to the unmissable opportunity of a global treaty to end the plastic pollution crisis,” said WWF Special Envoy Marco Lambertini Credit: Andrej Ivanov/AFP / Getty

PARIS — Getting 170-plus countries to agree on a global treaty to fight plastic pollution was never going to be easy. But negotiators didn’t think clearing the first hurdle would be this hard.

A second round of U.N. talks for an international plan to tackle plastic pollution limped toward its conclusion Friday, marred by delays, protests, and geopolitical tensions.

A key aim for many countries was to give the go-ahead for the broad strokes of a plastics treaty to be drafted, giving them something to work off of at the next round of talks in Kenya in November.

The meeting ended Friday evening with a mandate to draft the text — to the relief of countries in the High Ambition Coalition, which is pushing to “end plastic pollution by 2040,” and NGOs.

“After a week of negotiations, the world is one step […]

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