The world has a chance to end plastic pollution - the petrochemical giants mustn't spoil it | Steve Fletcher

The UN global plastic treaty could be as important as the 2015 Paris accords, if negotiators can stand up to industry lobbyistsLast week, in an enormous convention centre in downtown Ottawa, I joined delegates who have been negotiating over the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.The global plastic treaty has a mandate to agree on a legally binding, international agreement to tackle plastic pollution across the entire plastics life cycle, from the initial extraction of fossil fuels for plastics production to the end-of-life disposal of plastic waste. The current meeting is the fourth of five scheduled negotiations and is critically important - without agreement on the objectives, structure and key measures, the prospect of agreeing on the final treaty text by the end of 2024 seems ambitious. Continue reading...