About 170 countries have been locked in tense negotiations over how to reduce plastic pollution after a week of UN talks in Paris surrounded by a frenzy of industry lobbying.
Negotiators have agreed to develop a first draft of a treaty to reduce plastic pollution but there are still divisions over issues such as whether the rules will be legally binding and whether they will limit petrochemical companies’ production of new plastic materials.
A group of 130 countries, including Mexico, Canada, New Zealand and most of Europe, want binding rules. But fossil fuel producing countries such as the US, Russia and China want a less ambitious, voluntary system in which countries are free to establish their own frameworks.