1. Long-awaited plastics treaty flops, for now Despite around-the-clock efforts from delegates, negotiators and numerous advocacy groups, the fifth session of the U.N. Environment Programme’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) on plastic pollution failed to pass the Global Plastics Treaty as a legally binding instrument by the end of negotiations Dec. 1. Recommended by a 2022 U.N. Environment Assembly resolution, the proposed treaty would end global plastic pollution by 2040. Although marine plastic pollution is one of the greatest environmental problems facing planet Earth today, the treaty did not pass at least in part because of very strong lobbying by the petrochemical and plastic industries and some member states. Because INC-5 was unable to produce a treaty that would reduce global primary plastic polymer production, lower the amount of chemicals of concern and help eliminate plastic pollution in our oceans, an additional meeting, dubbed INC-5.2, is expected to officially conclude the negotiations in July or August 2025. This follow-up, and hopefully last, meeting will be of paramount importance to reiterate the need to limit global plastics production and eliminate pollution for marine life and the most vulnerable coastal communities who rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. Among those present at INC-5 was the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastic Treaty, an international nonprofit of which one of us is a member. The coalition made the case for using science-based evidence to better target both sources of and solutions to plastic pollution, and it will continue to do so at INC-5.2,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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