By Olivia Le Poidevin and Valerie Volcovici
GENEVA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The US has despatched letters to not less than a handful of nations urging them to reject the objective of a worldwide pact that features limits on plastic manufacturing and plastic chemical components at first of U.N. plastic treaty talks in Geneva, based on a memo and communications seen by Reuters.
Within the communications dated July 25 and circulated to international locations at first of negotiations on Monday, the U.S. laid out its crimson traces for negotiations that put it in direct opposition to over 100 international locations which have supported these measures.
Hopes for a “last-chance” bold international treaty that tackles the complete life cycle of plastic air pollution from the manufacturing of polymers to the disposal of waste have dimmed as delegates collect for what was supposed to be the ultimate spherical of negotiations.
Vital divisions stay between oil-producing international locations— who oppose caps on virgin plastic manufacturing fueled by petroleum, coal, and fuel — and events such because the European Union and small island states, which advocate for limits, in addition to stronger administration of plastic merchandise and unsafe chemical compounds.
The U.S. delegation, led by profession State Division officers who had represented the Biden administration, despatched memos to international locations laying out its place and saying it is not going to conform to a treaty that tackles the upstream of plastic air pollution.
“We is not going to assist impractical international approaches similar to plastic manufacturing targets or bans and restrictions on plastic components or plastic merchandise – that may improve the prices of all plastic merchandise which might be used all through our each day lives,” stated the memo Reuters understands was despatched to international locations who couldn’t be named as a result of sensitivities across the negotiations.
NAIROBI MEETING
The U.S. acknowledged within the memo that after attending a preliminary heads of delegation assembly in Nairobi from June 30 to July 2, “we plainly don’t see convergence on provisions associated to the availability of plastic, plastic manufacturing, plastic components or international bans and restrictions on merchandise and chemical compounds, often known as the worldwide checklist”.
A State Division spokesperson advised Reuters every Social gathering ought to take measures based on its nationwide context.
“Some international locations might select to undertake bans, whereas others might need to give attention to improved assortment and recycling,” the spokesperson stated.
John Hocevar, Oceans Marketing campaign Director for Greenpeace USA, stated the U.S. delegation’s techniques underneath Trump marked a “return to old skool bullying from the U.S. Authorities making an attempt to make use of its monetary prowess to persuade governments to vary their place in a approach that advantages what the U.S. needs”.
One of many world’s main producers of plastics, the U.S. has additionally proposed revising the draft goal of the treaty to cut back plastic air pollution by eliminating a reference to an agreed “strategy that addresses the complete life cycle of plastics”, in a proposed decision seen by Reuters.
A supply acquainted with the negotiations advised Reuters it indicated that the U.S. is looking for to roll again language that had been agreed in 2022 to renegotiate the mandate for the Treaty.
The U.S. stance broadly aligns with the positions laid out by the worldwide petrochemicals trade, which acknowledged comparable positions forward of the talks, and various highly effective oil and petrochemical producer international locations which have held this place all through the negotiations.
Over 100 international locations have backed a cap on international plastic manufacturing.
Within the U.S., the Trump administration has quite a few measures to roll again local weather and environmental insurance policies that it says place too many burdens on trade.
Plastic manufacturing is ready to triple by 2060 with out intervention, choking oceans, harming human well being and accelerating local weather change, based on the OECD.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington and Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, modifying by Ed Osmond)
