Nations call for strong plastics treaty as difficult talks loom
More than 90 countries called on Tuesday for a global treaty to restrict plastic production, ahead of another round of hard-fought negotiations on the pact.
The talks collapsed in late 2024 with nations unable to agree on how to stop millions of tonnes of plastic waste from entering the environment each year.
Ahead of the next round of negotiations in August, ministers from 95 countries issued a symbolic call for a binding treaty that caps plastic production and phases out harmful chemicals.
"This declaration sends a clear and strong message: we will not give up," France's environment minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice in southern France, where the statement was issued.
"We must reduce our production and consumption of plastics."
So-called "high-ambition" nations have long pushed for the accord to include caps on the manufacture of new plastic, which is largely made from chemicals derived from fossil fuels.
An opposing group of "like-minded" countries -- mostly oil and petrochemical giants -- have rejected calls for production limits, and pushed instead for a treaty that prioritises waste management.
Mexico's environment minister Alicia Barcena said caps on plastic were critical "to send a message on the root of the plastic crisis" and recycling and waste management alone would not solve the problem.
In 2019, the world produced around 460 million tonnes of plastic, a figure that has doubled since 2000, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Plastic production is expected to triple by 2060.
But just nine percent of plastic is recycled globally and every day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks worth of plastic waste is dumped into oceans, rivers and lakes.
"We are heartened to see this demonstration of ambition from the majority of countries, who are showing a united front against the small number of petro-chemical states trying to prevent a strong treaty," said Ana Rocha from GAIA, an alliance of activist groups.
The declaration also called for the elimination of "chemicals of concern" in plastics that are harmful to human health and the environment.
A treaty lacking these elements or based on voluntary measures "would not be effective to deal with the challenge of plastic pollution", they said.
Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found atop Mount Everest, in the deepest ocean trench, and in human blood and breastmilk.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged nations to "confront the plague of plastic pollution" and expressed hope the treaty talks would be concluded this year.
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An oil tanker negotiating shallow waters of northern Persian Gulf. (Photo: by Barry Iverson) Israel-Iran strikes have taken a dangerous turn in recent days. They follow an attack by Israel on the Iran's military and nuclear sites. Ever since tensions escalated on Friday, there have been calls for restraint from the United Nations, U.S., U.K., and European Union but to no avail. Fighting has so far been restricted to the two warring countries. However, the level of the ferocity of the strikes has raised the alarming prospect of a wider conflict in a region that is a key exporter of crude oil. On Friday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's forces had struck nuclear and military targets deep inside Iran and that action will continue until his country has met all its targets. Israeli strikes targeted sites in Arak and Isfahan, as well as Iran's main uranium enrichment site Natanz and its capital Tehran. 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Upscaling the tactic may involve targeting a bigger cluster of oil terminals and hubs in the Southern province of Hormozgan. The region is also home to two free trade zones on Kish and Qeshm Islands. Kish also hosts the Iranian oil bourse — the only exchange of its kind that does not trade oil and derivatives in U.S. dollars. The domestically focused Abadan Refinery - located across Shatt Al-Arab River on the border between Iraq and Iran - could also be an Israeli target. Reliable up-to-date data on the refinery's production capacity is hard to find. But estimates and regional media sources (e.g. Financial Tribune) suggest it could be producing around 400,000 barrels per day. Abadan has symbolic status too as Iran's oldest oil processing facility. Originally built in 1909 by Anglo-Persian oil (which later became BP), it services around 25% of Iran's domestic fuel demand. Any outages there could be crippling for both Iranian consumers as well as the country's military. Mahshahr Oil Terminal, an oil port located on the Khor Musa Channel, is a related target. It stores and shifts products from the Abadan Refinery, and serves as an engineering and jetty construction hub for Iran. If any of these are hit, Iran's domestic supply chain will likely be severely crippled and may require Tehran to redirect resources. Instead of targeting oil production and export facilities, Israel may execute a plan to cripple Iran's natural gas industry. Iran produces just over 270 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, almost entirely for domestic use. Israel has already attacked two of Israel's gas fields, including Phase 14 of South Pars so far. The attacks could be a harbinger of what may follow. Such targets would have little ramifications for the global natural gas industry, although Iran does share the natural gas basin with Qatar. However, Iran's natural gas production volume equates to around 6% of the world's output. Domestic outages may see Tehran turning to international liquefied natural gas supplies to meet its needs. For its retaliatory measures, many ponder if Iran could shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime artery for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf out to the Gulf of Oman and beyond (see map below). Cargo volumes lend relevance to such discussions. Iran's own shipments, plus that of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and to an extent United Arab Emirates' crude - roughly equating to 30% of the world's traded oil - as well as Qatar's LNG cargoes pass through the Strait daily. Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, a strategically extremely ... More important choke point, with Iran to the north and UAE and Oman's exclave Musandam to the south. While Iranians could certainly can attempt to close the Strait, they most probably won't, despite junior Iranian political voices currently calling for it. For starters, it would disrupt Iran's own oil shipments. Furthermore, a U.S.-led global retaliation may likely follow that would leave Iran's own coastline and all its ports vulnerable to a vastly superior American air and naval strike arsenal. Nearby Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. Any disruption would also irk Iran's number crude oil customer - China. Iran exported on average 1.65 million bpd of oil to China last year. Furthermore, nearly half of crude oil passing through the Strait - whether Iranian or not - in the region of 20.5 million bpd also heads to China. A potential blockade would be very difficult to maintain under pressure from Beijing, the world's main taker of Middle Eastern oil. In an attempt to drag the U.S. into the conflict, Iran may either directly or via its regional proxies in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza, attack the energy infrastructure of neighboring Gulf states. This has alleged precedent, for in the past Iran has been accused of targeting Saudi Arabia's oil fields (2019) and an attack in the UAE (2022). While the route of direct attacks remains open to Iran, its regional proxies Hamas and Hezbollah are severely diminished at the moment courtesy of Israel's sustained campaign against them. However, the Houthi Rebels in Yemen - the last standing Iranian proxy ally - remain in a position to ramp up their attacks on commercial shipping, and oil and gas cargoes in the Red Sea - a campaign that began in 2023. Sidestepping energy infrastructure, on Saturday, Iranian officials also warned that the country would attack the military bases of the U.S., U.K. and France in the region, if they are seen to be coming to Israel's defense. All three nations have also have special forces camps and large diplomatic missions in the Gulf. Such a scenario is being widely contemplated in intelligence circles, with U.S. regional forces closely monitoring the situation and the U.K. opting to send more military aircraft to its bases 'for contingency support across the region.' Any such escalation will likely trigger a wider regional war, and prolonged disruption to oil cargoes will likely draw China into a diplomatic row too. As things stand, should one or more of the above scenarios, especially an attack on Iran's Kharg Terminal, materialize during the Israel-Iran strikes, there could be serious near-term ramifications for the global oil and gas markets.
