Norway, the European Union and other countries across Africa, the Pacific Islands and South America say they won’t stand for oil-rich countries frustrating efforts to reach a global treaty to fight plastic pollution — and plan to heap pressure on these “vested interests” as talks reach their conclusion.
“We need to send a clear message that [we] will not accept a small number of countries standing in the way of an agreement,” Norwegian International Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim — co-chair of the self-named “High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution” — said in an interview with POLITICO.
Countries will meet in Busan, South Korea, in November for the final round of make-or-break United Nations talks to complete a global plastics treaty. The purpose of the treaty is to halt worsening plastic pollution, but progress has been slow over the past two years due to deep divisions among countries on how prescriptive that deal should be.
While the “high-ambition” countries say they remain committed to working with all nations to “establish and extend areas of common understanding and convergence,” in a new statement out Wednesday, the 67 nations pledge not to let “vested interests” stand in the way of an ambitious agreement as a final round of talks approaches.
