Tough US stance casts gloom over plastics pollution deal after Geneva flop

A Reuters story notes that the collapse on Friday of a sixth round of U.N. talks aimed at curbing plastic output has dimmed hopes of tackling a key source of pollution and left many advocates of restrictions pessimistic about a global deal during the Trump administration.

A three-year global push to reach a legally-binding treaty to curb plastic pollution choking the oceans and harming human health now appears adrift, participants said.

Many states and campaigners blamed the failure on oil-producers including the United States, which they said hardened long-held positions and urged others to reject caps on new plastic production that would have curbed output of polymers.

Anti-plastic campaigners saw little hope for a change in Washington’s position under President Donald Trump, who in February signed an executive order encouraging consumers to buy plastic straws.

“The mentality is different, and they want to extract more oil and gas out of the ground,” said Bjorn Beeler, International Coordinator at International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of over 600 public interest NGOs

Some participants also blamed organisers, the International Negotiating Committee (INC), a U.N.-established body supported by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP). A low point was a formal meeting an hour before the negotiations were set to conclude at midnight on Thursday which lasted less than a minute and was then adjourned until dawn, prompting laughter and jeering from delegates.

U.N. provisional rules require all states to agree – a constraint that some see as unworkable, especially under a U.S. administration that is retreating from multilateralism.

“Consensus is dead. You cannot agree a deal where all the countries who produce and export plastics and oil can decide the terms of what the deal is going to be,” said IPEN’s Beeler.

Read the full story here.