{"id":19271,"date":"2024-05-01T13:06:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T17:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=19271"},"modified":"2024-05-08T13:08:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T17:08:07","slug":"biden-faces-pressure-to-lead-on-combating-plastics-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/biden-faces-pressure-to-lead-on-combating-plastics-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Faces Pressure to Lead on Combating Plastics Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bgov.com\/bloomberg-government-news\/biden-faces-pressure-to-lead-on-combating-plastics-pollution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bloomberg Government<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Biden administration has come up short in advocating meaningful steps in international talks toward curbing harmful plastic pollution, a leading Senate Democrat says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government, led by the State Department in talks with other countries to develop a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution before the end of 2024, \u201chas placed on itself a series of limitations that will result in the United States failing to be a productive part of the conversation,\u201d Sen.&nbsp;Jeff Merkley&nbsp;(Ore.), chairman of the Interior-Environment spending subcommittee, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley led the congressional delegation that traveled to Ottawa last week for the UN\u2019s fourth global conference on ending plastic pollution. He spoke to Bloomberg Government shortly after the conference wrapped up early Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Negotiators agreed to work between now and the next conference in November on how to pay for putting a framework in place, to study chemicals of concern in products, and to focus on design and reusability. The most contentious topic\u2014capping plastic production\u2014likely won\u2019t be a focus of the working groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Plastics Industry Association, which sent representatives to the Ottawa meeting, looks forward to the coming months\u2019 work \u201cso that dialogue can continue among countries,\u201d said Matt Seaholm, chief executive officer of the group. \u201cAn international agreement is critical in coordinating the global effort to create equity for all in access to waste collection and recycling, and to eliminate plastic waste in the environment which has always been the goal of these negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley and other congressional progressives like Sen.&nbsp;Sheldon Whitehouse&nbsp;(D-R.I.) and Rep.&nbsp;Jared Huffman&nbsp;(D-Calif.), have urged President Joe Biden to press for limits on plastic production\u2014which the industry opposes\u2014and ramp up scrutiny of the petrochemical industry\u2019s lobbying at global environmental conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSimply having voluntary agreements with no accountability and no specified goals, is basically the equivalent of \u2018wish-cycling,\u2019 when you place a piece of plastic in that blue bin and you hope it\u2019s going to be recycled,\u201d Merkley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The administration, however, faces a balancing act among the plastics industry, environmental advocates, and progressive Democrats, on how to reduce plastic waste while recognizing the economy and consumers depend on plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEssentially having the Paris model that the State Department is advocating for, will not take us forward,\u201d Merkley said. US commitment to that international climate change agreement seesawed: adopted by 196 countries during the Obama administration in 2015, the US left it during the Trump administration, and rejoined it in 2021, the first year of Biden\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A State Department spokesperson called the Ottawa meeting productive, and noted the US government\u2019s efforts to drive down global demand for new plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Center of Negotiations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The US has put itself at the center of negotiations amid more and less ambitious member states since the four International Negotiating Committee sessions began in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fifth and final INC is scheduled for November\u2014after the US elections\u2014in South Korea, and negotiators are seeking an agreement on addressing plastic pollution that they can take home by the end of this year. The State Department has said that any accord can\u2019t go beyond existing law in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley and others say an ambitious framework can be crucial to persuade the Senate to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A \u201ccommon roadmap\u201d endorsed by the US, even without the imprimatur of law, can have a big influence on shaping global policy debates, Merkley said, citing negotiations on nuclear weapons with the Soviet Union during the Cold War that eventually helped decrease the threat of nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe administration, by saying we can only do what\u2019s in existing law and we can only do something that is voluntary, is basically saying the United States is not going to help lead the world in taking on the challenge of plastics,\u201d Merkley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley, sponsor of legislation (S. 3127) to reduce plastic production and increase recycling and composting, said he\u2019ll continue to hold hearings and work with his Democratic and Republican colleagues \u201cto try and forge bipartisan partnerships to take on individual pieces\u201d of plastic pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Merkley wouldn\u2019t predict how the Biden administration approaches the fifth international conference, or even its overall renewable energy policy, should the president win a new term. \u201cThere\u2019s no whispers in the background saying we\u2019ll be more aggressive when we get through November.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bloomberg Government The Biden administration has come up short in advocating meaningful steps in international talks toward curbing harmful plastic pollution, a leading Senate Democrat says. The government, led by the State Department in talks with other countries to develop a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution before the end of 2024, \u201chas placed on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-19271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-tackling-climate-change"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Biden Faces Pressure to Lead on Combating Plastics Pollution - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/biden-faces-pressure-to-lead-on-combating-plastics-pollution\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden Faces Pressure to Lead on Combating Plastics Pollution - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bloomberg Government The Biden administration has come up short in advocating meaningful steps in international talks toward curbing harmful plastic pollution, a leading Senate Democrat says. 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