The Trump administration is keeping its policy stances largely under wraps just days before United Nations leaders meet for what is supposed to be the final round of negotiations on a global plastic pollution treaty.
Closed-door meetings and public rhetoric indicate officials representing the Trump administration will take a more industry-friendly, lowest-common-denominator approach. But that position, while slightly more assertive, isn’t all that different from the one taken during the Biden administration, said David Azoulay, a senior attorney on the health and environment program at the Center for International Environmental Law.
“The reality of the past three years of negotiation is that they’ve always and consistently been pushing for a very low ambition kind of treaty — which was no legally binding obligation, mostly focused on waste management,” Azoulay said.
That approach positions the U.S. closer to oil-rich nations and further from the 100-plus countries part of the “high ambition” coalition, which is pushing for an agreement that would limit plastic production, ban certain problematic single-use products and restrict uses of some of the riskiest chemicals.
