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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

Countries are under pressure to make progress on a first-ever global plastics treaty this week, but they face tense negotiations in the Canadian capital with parties deeply divided over what the treaty should include as talks kicked off on Tuesday.

If governments can agree on a legally binding treaty that addresses not just how plastics are discarded, but also how much plastic is produced and how it is used, the treaty could become the most significant pact to address global climate-warming emissions since the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Global plastic treaty negotiations come as the European Parliament approved on Wednesday a proposed law that would ban certain single-use plastic packaging like mini shampoo bottles in hotels and thin plastic bags for groceries from 2030, in an attempt to curb the rising tide of packaging waste.

Also on my radar today:

• McKinsey faces US criminal probe over opioids work, sources say
• Court revives Whole Foods worker’s lawsuit over ‘Black Lives Matter’ masks
• TikTok CEO expects to defeat US ban: ‘We aren’t going anywhere’

A prop depicting a water tap with cascading plastic bottles is displayed by activists near the Shaw Centre venue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo

When countries agreed in 2022 to negotiate a legally binding treaty by the end of this year, they called for addressing the full lifecycle of plastics – from production and use to waste.

But as negotiations kick off in Ottawa, there is staunch opposition from the petrochemical lobby and some governments dependent on fossil fuels to limit production or ban certain chemicals.

In fact, nearly 200 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists plan to join this week’s negotiations— a 37% jump from the previous gathering in November, according to an analysis by CIEL, a nonprofit law group.

During the U.N. talks on plastics in Nairobi, Kenya, last November, Saudi Arabia launched a coalition with countries including Russia, Iran, Cuba, China, and Bahrain called Global Coalition for Plastics Sustainability that says the treaty should focus only on tracking plastic waste and wants the treaty to focus on waste rather than production controls.

The position is shared by the petrochemical industry. Saudi officials declined to comment.

The biggest generator of plastic waste, the U.S., has refrained from joining the negotiating blocs.

Measures proposed by U.S. negotiators include requiring countries to tackle certain chemicals that have raised public health concerns as well as “single use” plastic products that are deemed wasteful.

More than 60 countries making up the so-called High-Ambition Coalition, including European Union members, Mexico, Australia, Japan and Rwanda – and most recently Ukraine – are also arguing for a strong treaty that tackles production and requires transparency and controls for chemicals used in the process.

But unlike the U.S., they argue the treaty must impose global measures and targets rather than a system of national action plans.

The chair of the Ottawa negotiations told Reuters he planned to split national delegates into seven working groups this week to work on unresolved issues, including what the treaty should include and how it should be implemented.

During the last treaty talks in November, there was strong support from 130 governments for requiring companies to disclose how much plastic they produce, and which chemicals they use in the process.

It is unclear whether the majority of countries asking for production limits can persuade the holdouts to support such a measure. Environmental groups and scientists say production limits are essential.

The production of plastics accounts for some 5% of climate emissions and could grow to 20% by 2050 unless limited, according to a report last week from the U.S. federal Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“More plastic production means more plastic pollution,” said Bjorn Beeler, international coordinator of the International Pollutants Elimination Network.

That point was underscored in a letter published on Tuesday by 30 scientists comprising the Scientists Coalition, who have told negotiators that caps on plastic production are the only way to tackle the problem and called on industry to provide detailed figures for production and disclose the chemicals they use to enable more efficient recycling of components.

People walk near whales stranded on a beach at Toby’s Inlet, Dunsborough, Australia. Dunsborough and Busselton Wildlife Care/Handout via REUTERS 

Cédric Dever, director of the Plastic Waste Coalition at The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), shares his thoughts on the ongoing plastic treaty negotiations:

“The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) talks in Canada represent a critical point in the global negotiations to secure a binding UN Treaty on tackling plastic pollution.

“With the end-of-year deadline for an agreement imminent, now more than ever we need to act urgently to change our collective relationship with plastic.

“Collaboration and shared commitments are essential to tackling the global plastics epidemic.

“Along with many of our members, The Consumer Goods Forum is part of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty – the negotiating group providing the corporate perspective on what the new regulations should look like.

“Crucially, businesses want a robust global treaty with legally binding rules and measures to drive change on a worldwide scale through harmonized regulations on reduction, circulation, and prevention alongside remediation.

“We cannot risk an agreement which results in a patchwork of country-by-country regulations – creating inefficiencies and confusion on approach.

“Our Plastic Waste Coalition has already laid important groundwork which can help to inform the treaty’s approach to packaging design, via our Golden Design Rules, and to Extended Producer Responsibility , via our Optimal EPR Guidelines.”

Ceremony celebrating return of ‘Balot’ Sculpture to village in Western Congo, Lusanga, Democratic Republic of Congo

Today’s spotlight highlights the successful ethical returns of stolen artifacts going back to their original homeland, sparking a renewed interest in environmental protection. 

Joyful singing and cheers echoed around the hills surrounding a small village in western Democratic Republic of Congo as a procession emerged from an underground cave bearing an antique wooden figure of a Belgian colonial officer.

The “Balot” sculpture was made in the area in the 1930s when Congo was under Belgium’s brutal colonial rule. It is back in Lusanga for a six-month display after spending more than 50 years at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Its return results from years of activism by the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League (CATPC), a collective of Lusanga-based artists who use the proceeds from their art, including sales of digital images of the Balot statue, to fund reforestation projects around Lusanga.

“Everywhere you look there used to be huge forests, and when the white man came, they cut down all the wood to use it,” said artist and CATPC member Alphonse Bukumba. “We wouldn’t live like this unless we had seen the world burn.”

Its homecoming coincides with growing global pressure on Western institutions to repatriate artifacts taken during the colonial era. 

Members of the La Perouse Aboriginal Community are presented with the Gweagal Spears at Trinity College Cambridge, in Cambridge, Britain. REUTERS/Carl Recine.

Speaking of artifacts taken during the colonial era, four spears taken from Australia by a British explorer more than 250 years ago will be returned by Cambridge University to descendants of the indigenous community that crafted them.

The four spears are all that remain of the 40 or so that James Cook and his team took from the Gweagal people on their arrival in Australia in 1770, when they became the first known Europeans to reach the country’s east coast.

Indigenous people from across the globe have battled for years to recover works pillaged by explorers and colonists, and they are finally receiving some of the treasures back at a time when Western institutions are grappling with the cultural legacies of empire.

Benin Bronzes have been returned to Nigeria by Germany and British organizations, while the Netherlands has handed back precious stones, silver and gold jewelry to its former Asian colonies, Sri Lanka and Bali.

Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Mark Potter

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