{"id":20976,"date":"2024-11-25T10:10:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T15:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=20976"},"modified":"2024-12-06T10:13:44","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T15:13:44","slug":"in-south-korea-nations-meet-in-final-round-to-address-global-plastic-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/in-south-korea-nations-meet-in-final-round-to-address-global-plastic-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"In South Korea, nations meet in final round to address global plastic crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

AP News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negotiators gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday in a final push to create a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution.

It\u2019s the fifth time the world\u2019s nations convene to craft a legally binding plastic pollution accord. In addition to the national delegations, representatives from the plastics industry, scientists and environmentalists have come to shape how the world tackles the surging problem.

\u201cWe must end plastic pollution before plastic pollution ends us,\u201d Kim Wansup, South Korea\u2019s minister of environment, said during the opening session.

The planet is \u201c choking on plastic, \u201d according to the United Nations. It\u2019s polluting lakes, rivers, oceans and people\u2019s bodies.

\u201cDon\u2019t kick the can, or the plastic bottle, down the road,\u201d U.N. Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a message to negotiators.

This \u201cis an issue about the intergenerational justice of those generations that will come after us and be living with all this garbage. We can solve this and we must get it done in Busan,\u201d she said in an interview.

The previous four global meetings have revealed sharp differences in goals and interests. This week\u2019s talks go through Saturday.


\u201cWe think it\u2019s the heart of the treaty, to go upstream and to get to the problem at its source,\u201d said Dennis Clare, legal advisor and plastics negotiator for Micronesia. \u201cThere\u2019s a tagline, \u2018You can\u2019t recycle your way out of this problem.\u2019\u201d

Some plastic-producing and oil and gas countries, including Saudi Arabia, disagree. They vigorously oppose any limits on plastic manufacturing. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia is the world\u2019s largest exporter of primary polypropylene, a common type of plastic, accounting for an estimated 17% of exports last year, according to the Plastics Industry Association.

China, the United States and Germany led the global plastics trade by exports and imports in 2023, the association said.

The plastics industry has been advocating for a treaty focused on redesigning plastic products, recycling and reuse, sometimes referred to as \u201ccircularity.\u201d Chris Jahn, International Council of Chemical Associations secretariat, said negotiators should focus on ending plastic waste in the environment, not plastic production, to get a deal. Many countries won\u2019t join a treaty if it includes production caps, he said.

To continue to progress and grow as a global economy, there are going to be more plastics, Jahn added.

\u201cSo we should strive then to keep those plastics in the economy and out of the environment,\u201d Jahn said.

The United States delegation at first said countries should develop their own plans to act, a position viewed as favoring industry. It changed its position this summer, saying the U.S. is open to considering global targets for reductions in plastic production.

Environmental groups accused the U.S. of backtracking as negotiations approached.

Center for Coalfield Justice executive director Sarah Martik said the United States is standing on the sidelines rather than leading, putting \u201ctheir thumb on the scale throughout the entirety of the negotiations.\u201d She hopes this does not derail other countries\u2019 ambition.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a national strategy to prevent plastic pollution Thursday, but Martik said she thinks too many of the measures are voluntary to make a difference.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, said it\u2019s a mistake for the United States to settle for the lowest common denominator proposals, just to get some kind of agreement.

Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the committee chair from Ecuador, recently proposed text for sections where he thinks the delegations could agree.

The production and use of plastics globally is set to reach 736 million tons by 2040, up 70% from 2020, without policy changes, according to the intergovernmental Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Research published in Science this month found it is still possible to nearly end plastic pollution. The policies that make the most difference are: mandating new products be made with 40% post-consumer recycled plastic; limiting new plastic production to 2020 levels; investing significantly in plastic waste management, such as landfills and waste collection services and implementing a small fee on plastic packaging.

The treaty is the only way to solve plastic pollution at this scale, said Douglas McCauley, professor at UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. McCauley co-led the research.

Margaret Spring, chief conservation and science officer for Monterey Bay Aquarium, said plastic pollution used to be considered largely a waste problem. Now it is widely viewed as an existential crisis that must be addressed, said Spring, who represents the International Science Council at the negotiations.

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen people\u2019s understanding of this issue move as fast, given how complex the topic is,\u201d she said. \u201cIt gives me hope that we can actually start moving the dial.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AP News Negotiators gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday in a final push to create a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution. It\u2019s the fifth time the world\u2019s nations convene to craft a legally binding plastic pollution accord. In addition to the national delegations, representatives from the plastics industry, scientists and […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-20976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn South Korea, nations meet in final round to address global plastic crisis - 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\/in-south-korea-nations-meet-in-final-round-to-address-global-plastic-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In South Korea, nations meet in final round to address global plastic crisis - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AP News Negotiators gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday in a final push to create a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution. 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