Global plastic pollution treaty talks hit critical stage in Ottawa

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Thousands of negotiators and observers representing most of the world’s nations gathered in Ottawa to craft a treaty to end the rapidly escalating problem of plastic pollution. The scale of the plastics problem is daunting, but not for the volunteers collecting waste on a Cape Town beach. Cleanup on this scale may be considered a drop in the oceans of plastic, but here it's the message that counts as thousands of delegates representing scores of countries arrive for the International Plastics Negotiations in Ottawa, Canada, last month. The aim is to craft a treaty to stop the rapidly escalating problem of plastic pollution, but no one expected that to happen in April, the UN has set the deadline for this towards the end of this year. In March 2022, 175 nations agreed to make the first legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, including in the oceans, by the end of 2024. Each day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny plastic particles. Negotiators must streamline the existing treaty draft and decide its scope: whether it will focus on human health and the environment, whether it will limit the actual production of plastic, and whether it will restrict some chemicals used in plastics. These are elements that a self-named “high-ambition coalition” of countries wants to see. Alternatively, the agreement could have a more limited scope and focus on plastic waste and greater recycling, as some of the plastic-producing and oil and gas exporters want. It’s an extremely short timeline for negotiations, meant to match the urgency of the problem. This is the fourth of five meetings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution. Plastic production continues to ramp up globally and is projected to double or triple by 2050 if nothing changes. This article was provided by The Associated Press.