The international negotiations in Busan, South Korea, to set up a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution are due to conclude on 1st December. 102 nations have banded together to demand that a cap on plastic production is included, in order to reduce at source the amount of plastic entering our environment. This bloc is led by the Pacific Small Island Developing States and Panama, and includes the European Union’s 27 member states, 38 African countries and the UK.
Some 460 million tonnes of plastics are produced every year, and production is set to triple by 2060 under business-as-usual growth rates, so production must quickly be reduced if our world is not to drown under a deluge of plastic. However, a small group of nations, nicknamed the Low Ambition Coalition by observers, are reportedly trying to exclude mention of production in the treaty text, meaning the industry can continue to grow and that pollution will have to be tackled by managing the increasing amount of waste. These countries appear to include Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. 220 lobbyists from the fossil fuel and chemical industries are registered to attend the negotiations, outnumbering any national delegation. There is concern that they are influencing national delegations, and the ambition of the treaty overall.
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