An ambitious treaty can halt plastic pollution, says expert

Delegates at the UN plastic pollution treaty talks in Geneva must secure an ambitious global agreement so they can look future generations in the eye, one of the world's leading marine litter experts has said.

- Sandra Laville

Prof Richard Thompson, who was named one of Time's 100 most influential people this year for his groundbreaking work on plastic pollution, said decisive action was needed to protect human health and the planet.

He spoke yesterday as delegates from more than 170 countries prepared to meet in Geneva to bridge deep divisions over whether limits on plastic production are included in a final treaty.

Last November, talks in Busan, South Korea, to secure a global treaty to end plastic pollution broke down without agreement.

More than 100 countries support legally binding global reductions in plastic production and the phasing out of certain chemicals and single-use plastic products.

But nations with large fossil fuel industries such as Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and Iran oppose restrictions on plastic production, and are pushing for an agreement focused on better management and recycling of waste. The US, under Joe Biden and now Donald Trump, has indicated that it is more supportive of a lower ambition treaty that does not include production cuts.

The scale of plastic production and its threat to public health and the environment was underlined again yesterday when a new report warned that the world is in a "plastics crisis" that is causing disease and death from infancy to old age and is responsible for at least $1.5tn (£1.1tn) a year in health-related damages.