Oman supports UN effort for treaty on plastic pollution control
Involving nearly 180 countries, the talks are being held under the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to develop a treaty to end the plastic pollution crisis. The negotiations are expected to shape a comprehensive agreement that addresses the entire life cycle of plastics, from design and production to disposal.
'The world wants and indeed needs a plastic conventional treaty because the crisis is getting out of hand – and people are frankly outraged,' said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.
She noted that plastic pollution has become widespread, affecting oceans, ecosystems and even human health. 'We know that plastic is in our nature, in our oceans and yes, even in our bodies. What is sure is that no one wants to live with the plastic pollution.'
A 22-page draft document prepared by the INC, containing 32 articles, will serve as the basis for negotiations. The text outlines measures to promote plastic circularity, prevent leakage into the environment, and regulate production and waste management.
'Some countries will have to deal with reduction, others with mechanical recycling and others with alternatives,' Inger said. 'Let's see how we can get to this through the negotiations. I think there's a lot of good faith in the working group right now.'
UNEP has warned that without coordinated global action, plastic waste is projected to triple by 2060, posing significant environmental and public health risks.
The Geneva talks represent a critical step towards reaching a final agreement, with countries expected to work through the text article by article. If adopted, the treaty would be the first global legal instrument to comprehensively address plastic pollution.
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Muscat Daily
10 hours ago
- Muscat Daily
Oman supports UN effort for treaty on plastic pollution control
Muscat – Oman is participating in high-level United Nations negotiations in Geneva aimed at framing a legally binding global treaty to tackle plastic pollution, including in marine environments. The sultanate's delegation – led by Environment Authority – is attending the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) from August 5 to 14. Involving nearly 180 countries, the talks are being held under the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to develop a treaty to end the plastic pollution crisis. The negotiations are expected to shape a comprehensive agreement that addresses the entire life cycle of plastics, from design and production to disposal. 'The world wants and indeed needs a plastic conventional treaty because the crisis is getting out of hand – and people are frankly outraged,' said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. She noted that plastic pollution has become widespread, affecting oceans, ecosystems and even human health. 'We know that plastic is in our nature, in our oceans and yes, even in our bodies. What is sure is that no one wants to live with the plastic pollution.' A 22-page draft document prepared by the INC, containing 32 articles, will serve as the basis for negotiations. The text outlines measures to promote plastic circularity, prevent leakage into the environment, and regulate production and waste management. 'Some countries will have to deal with reduction, others with mechanical recycling and others with alternatives,' Inger said. 'Let's see how we can get to this through the negotiations. I think there's a lot of good faith in the working group right now.' UNEP has warned that without coordinated global action, plastic waste is projected to triple by 2060, posing significant environmental and public health risks. The Geneva talks represent a critical step towards reaching a final agreement, with countries expected to work through the text article by article. If adopted, the treaty would be the first global legal instrument to comprehensively address plastic pollution.
Observer
a day ago
- Observer
UN push on treaty to curb spiralling plastic menace
Nations must resolve the global plastics crisis, the head of UN talks told negotiators from 180 countries gathered in Geneva on Tuesday to forge a landmark treaty on eliminating the life-threatening waste. 'We are facing a global crisis,' Ecuadoran diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso said at the start of 10 days of negotiations. 'Plastic pollution is damaging ecosystems, polluting our oceans and rivers, threatening biodiversity, harming human health, and unfairly impacting the most vulnerable,' he said. 'The urgency is real, the evidence is clear, and the responsibility is on us.' Three years of negotiations hit the wall in Busan, South Korea in December when oil-producing states blocked a consensus. Key figures steering the negotiations at this new attempt said they were not expecting an easy ride this time, but insisted a deal remained within reach. 'There's been extensive diplomacy from Busan till now,' UN Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen said. UNEP is hosting the talks, and Andersen said conversations between different regions and interest groups had generated momentum. 'Most countries, actually, that I have spoken with have said: 'We're coming to Geneva to strike the deal'. 'Will it be easy? No. Will it be straightforward? No. Is there a pathway for a deal? Absolutely.' Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks, in the deepest ocean trench and scattered throughout almost every part of the human body. In 2022, countries agreed they would find a way to address the crisis by the end of 2024. However, the supposedly final negotiations on a legally-binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the seas, flopped in Busan. One group of countries sought an ambitious deal to limit production and phase out harmful chemicals. But a clutch of mostly oil-producing nations rejected production limits and wanted to focus on treating waste. Valdivieso insisted that an effective, fair and ambitious agreement was within reach. 'Our paths and positions might differ; our destination is the same,' he said on Monday. 'We are all here because we believe in a shared cause: a world free of plastic pollution.' More than 600 non-governmental organisations are in Geneva. NGOs and civil society have access to the discussions tackling the thorniest points, such as banning certain chemicals and capping production. 'To solve the plastic pollution crisis, we have to stop making so much plastic,' Greenpeace delegation chief Graham Forbes said. The group and its allies want a treaty 'that cuts plastic production, eliminates toxic chemicals, and provides the financing that's going to be required to transition to a fossil fuel, plastic-free future', he said. 'The fossil fuel industry is here in force,' he noted, adding: 'We cannot let a few countries determine humanity's future when it comes to plastic pollution.' More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use items. While 15 per cent of plastic waste is collected for recycling, only nine per cent is actually recycled. Nearly half, 46 per cent, ends up in landfills, while 17 per cent is incinerated and 22 per cent is mismanaged and becomes litter. But Matthew Kastner, spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, said the plastics industry and its products were 'vital to public health', notably through medical devices, surgical masks, child safety seats, helmets and pipes delivering clean water. — AFP
Times of Oman
2 days ago
- Times of Oman
Fact check: Are X's community notes fueling misinformation?
New York: On July 9, the US government sanctioned United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese for what the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said was a "campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States." Albanese has consistently denounced Israel's actions in Gaza since its offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas began in October 2023, as well as the Trump administration's efforts to suppress dissenting voices critical of Israel. The announcement was rejected by the UN, which called for a reversal of the sanctions, and it also prompted a debate online, where Albanese's name began to trend on X (formerly Twitter). Posts poured in both defending and criticizing her work, accompanied in several cases by "Community Notes," X's signature tool to fight misinformation. The notes, which are essentially brief clarifications or extra context attached to posts, can be submitted by anyone. X claims it uses what it calls a "bridging algorithm" to prevent bias, lending more weight to upvotes from users with historically different viewpoints and thus theoretically reducing the chance that a single group can dominate the narrative. But that doesn't make them immune from error. In the case of Albanese, for instance, one community note claimed that "Francesca Albanese is not a lawyer," amplifying arguments by her critics about her qualifications and "ethical conduct." While Albanese did admit in an interview with Vanity Fair that she didn't take the bar exam, which would have qualified her as a practising attorney, she did study law. Her official profile on the website of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) describes her as an "international lawyer" who has authored publications on International Law. What this example shows is that while community notes can be a valuable tool to reduce the spread of disinformation, they are not always accurate and often fail to paint the whole picture. Notes are meant to be a system where users collaboratively add context and verify facts. Research from Cornell University has shown that notes on inaccurate posts on X help to reduce reposts and increase the likelihood that the original author deletes the post. However, according to an analysis of X data by NBC News, the number of community notes being published are declining in number, and DW Fact check spotted several examples of the tool misleading users instead of helping them spot falsehoods. Misleading community notes slipping through In July 2025, a post by Sky News quoting the United Kingdom's Metropolitan Police chief went viral, accumulating over 4.7 million views. The post linked to a Sky News article based on an interview with the police chief, which highlighted structural inequality, noting it was "shameful" that black boys in London were statistically more likely to die young than white boys. The community note was then added; however, it was reframed, stating: "The headline lacks the essential context that despite making up only 13% of London's total population, Black Londoners account for 45% of London's knife murder victims, 61% of knife murder perpetrators, and 53% of knife crime perpetrators." While factually correct, the note introduced unrelated crime statistics from 2022 — subtly shifting the focus from systemic inequality to framing black boys as perpetrators of crime. Instead of clarifying the issue, the note distorted the original message, misleading users who hadn't actually clicked on the link in the post. Community notes and elections Another problem was spotted by experts during the 2024 US Presidential elections. Researchers Alexios Mantzarlis and Alex Mahadevan from the Florida-based Poynter Institute analysed community notes posted on Election Day. Their goal was to assess whether community notes were helping counter election misinformation or not. Their findings raised concerns. Out of all fact-checkable posts analyzed, only 29% carried a community note rated as "helpful." In X's system, a note is rated "helpful" when it is upvoted by a diverse group of contributors and prioritised for public display. But of these "helpful" notes, only 67% actually addressed content that was fact-checkable. In other words, nearly a third of the notes that appeared as helpful were attached to posts that didn't contain factual claims at all. The researchers saw this as a problem of low precision and recall: too few misleading posts were getting corrected, and even when notes appeared, many weren't targeting actual misinformation. As Poynter noted, "This is not the kind of precision and recall figures that typically get a product shipped at a Big Tech platform." Meanwhile, Germany's Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, a research institute based in Berlin analyzed nearly 9,000 community notes in the run-up to the country's federal elections in February this year, and found that "community notes follow political patterns." The institute said, "Users who write notes are not free of political views. Their assessments and comments may therefore be influenced by their own interests or ideological biases." Poynter's Mahadevan explained in an interview with DW's fact-checking team how people may be gaming the system: when someone new joins Community Notes, X assumes they're unbiased because they haven't rated many notes yet.
