Environmentalists criticize oil lobby's presence at plastics agreement talks April 26, 2024

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Environmentalists criticize oil lobby's presence at plastics agreement talks

OTTAWA, April 26, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Environmentalists on Thursday denounced the increased presence of oil industry lobbyists at talks in Ottawa on a global agreement to reduce plastic pollution.

The 196 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumber any single delegation at the fourth round of negotiations in Ottawa. According to the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), there are almost 40 percent more industry lobbyists present at these talks than at the last round in Kenya in November.

The meeting in Ottawa is considered crucial as it is the penultimate meeting before a final round of negotiations in South Korea later this year.

Negotiators from 175 countries are meeting to adopt a world-first UN agreement to tackle the scourge of plastic, which can be found from mountain tops to the depths of the oceans and in human blood and breast milk.

"The footprint of industry lobbyists is getting bigger as calls for an agreement to tackle plastic production grow both inside and outside the negotiations," said CIEL.

For example, they outnumber the 180 representatives of the European Union delegations and are three times as numerous as the 58 scientists of the Coalition of Scientists for an Effective Treaty on Plastic," the NGO said.

"The presence of actors responsible for causing this crisis creates an imbalance of power that hinders progress," lamented Rachel Radvany of CIEL.

"The influence and growing presence of the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries is neither what people want nor what the climate needs," said Graham Forbes of Greenpeace.

Companies are not allowed to register for the talks, but lobbyists can join trade associations or national delegations to take part.

Plastic manufacturers are pushing for more recycling, while environmentalists are calling for a reduction in the amount of plastic produced, as annual production has more than doubled to 460 million tons in 20 years and is expected to triple within four decades.

Industry lobbyists are sitting in state delegations while the communities most affected by the plastics crisis are fighting to have their voices heard," said Tori Cress, who represents indigenous peoples at the negotiations.

The talks in Ottawa are scheduled to continue until April 29.

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