Nearly 180 nations will convene in Ottawa, Canada, over the next week in hopes of making progress on a long-stalled United Nations treaty on plastic pollution.
All eyes are on the U.S.: It’s one of the world’s biggest contributors to plastic waste, and it has remained ambivalent on multiple key issues holding up negotiations.
This week’s meetings mark the fourth of five rounds of planned negotiations before the end of 2024, the deadline nations set when they first agreed to enter talks in 2022.
Jose Fernandez, the State Department’s undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment, will lead the U.S. delegation. He will be joined by John Thompson, deputy assistant secretary for environment for the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, who led the delegation during the most recent round of negotiations.
