Nearly 200 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists plan to join this week’s United Nations negotiations on the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution – a 37 per cent jump from the previous gathering in November, an analysis released on Thursday showed.
The aim is to create a legally binding treaty that would cover the entire lifecycle of plastic, from production to disposal or reuse. But some fossil fuel and petrochemical industry groups, as well as countries that rely on those industries, are opposed to any UN treaty that would impose strict production caps or chemical or product phase-outs.
“The presence of actors in the room who are responsible for generating this crisis creates power imbalances that obstruct progress,” said Rachel Radvany, environmental health campaigner at the Center for International Environmental Law , which conducted the analysis. CIEL, a nonprofit law group, used registration data provided by the UN Environment Programme, which is overseeing the talks. CIEL counted representatives of oil companies, chemical companies and their trade groups as lobbyists, as well as non-profits or think-tanks that receive significant support from those industries.