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Ninety-five countries across continents have called for the adoption of an “ambitious” UN pact to tackle plastic pollution that includes targets to reduce plastic production – a growing source of planet-heating emissions.
The show of unity comes two months before governments are due to restart formal negotiations on a treaty in Geneva, Switzerland, after they dramatically failed to reach agreement at what was supposed to be the last round of talks late last year.
In Busan, South Korea, a handful of oil and gas-producing states – vocally led by Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran – blocked a push to include caps on the production of new plastic, arguing the pact should be limited to addressing consumption and recycling.
“This declaration sends a clear and strong message: we will not give up,” Agnes Pannier-Runacher, France’s minister of ecological transition, said on Tuesday at the launch of the declaration on the sidelines of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France.
“We cannot lie to them [our citizens] and to ourselves by saying that waste management and recycling will be enough to solve the problem. It’s a lie,” she added.
Lifeline for fossil fuel industry
Signatories to the declaration include European countries, Australia, Canada, Colombia and Mexico, as well as many African and Pacific island nations. No major plastic producers – such as China, the US, Saudi Arabia, India and South Korea – have endorsed the call.
Nearly all plastics are derived from oil and gas and, as the world gradually starts to wean itself off fossil fuels for energy, countries and companies that profit from carbon-based fuels view an expected ramp-up in plastic production as a lifeline for their industry.
The $712-billion plastics industry is set to at least double by 2050, which would see plastic production account for nearly a third of the remaining global carbon budget for staying below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.
In the Nice declaration, countries are calling for the adoption of a “global target” to reduce the production and consumption of the building block of plastic items to “sustainable levels”. The goal would be regularly adjusted to raise ambition and countries would be required to report on their production, imports and exports of primary plastic polymers, it added.
Failure of Busan talks exposes fossil fuel barrier to UN plastics pact
“A treaty that does not reduce plastic production will be empty paper,” said Lena Estrada, Colombia’s minister of environment, who called the declaration “an act of courage”.
The statement also calls for a binding obligation to phase out “the most problematic plastic products and chemicals” used in the manufacturing process and for “new and additional finance” that would support the implementation of the treaty.
Estrada called on opposing countries to act in good faith. “It’s not too late to stand with us,” she added.
Ambitious treaty or no treaty?
Alicia Barcena, Mexico’s minister for the environment and natural resources, said the Geneva talks in August will “mark a turning point” in the hard-fought negotiations that began over three years ago.
But she acknowledged that a treaty might not be concluded there as deep divisions remain. “We’re going to go to Geneva with the intention of getting as much as we can,” Barcena told journalists in Nice. “That doesn’t mean that the treaty might be finalised there. It depends if we want a mediocre or… an ambitious one.”
If the negotiations prove unsuccessful once again, governments could weigh up other options. Dennis Clare, a legal advisor for the Pacific Island state of Micronesia at the talks, told Climate Home that if the so-called ‘high-ambition’ group of countries cannot get an agreement through the current UN process, they can “bypass the blockers and do a deal elsewhere”.
While longstanding fault lines persist, it is unclear what position the United States will take in the next round of talks.
With Joe Biden at the helm, it offered lukewarm support for production caps. The new administration has not yet indicated its plans for the negotiations or whether it will even show up. But President Donald Trump strongly supports the fossil fuel industry and has already taken token measures to undo Biden’s efforts to cut plastic use, such as ending efforts to replace plastic straws with paper ones.
Speaking at Tuesday’s press conference, a French official said they had held informal discussions with the US. “Clearly there are some changes but we don’t know exactly what will happen,” she added.
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Over half of countries push for plastic production cuts in new UN pact
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Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.
Formal negotiations
Finance
Finance, predictably, was at the heart of the discord and deadlock at the Yerevan talks.
At COP17, discussions on finance had to achieve several outcomes.
The first part – to take stock of biodiversity finance mobilised so far to meet the nature deal’s goals – fell under the global review.
As the global report noted, developed countries failed to meet their commitments to raise “at least $20bn a year by 2025” for nature. Delegates pointed to falling aid levels and a sharp 27% decline in environmental funding for the 2026-30 period.
The second part was to agree on how to mobilise resources for the next four years, to meet the GBF’s goals and targets.
Calls to “broaden the contributor base” of who pays to protect nature – and whether that should include emerging economies – became the most fraught element of the talks.
Eventually, countries agreed on what Switzerland described as a “super, mega-delicate” text. It hinged on major “political compromises”, with “no major winner or loser”, according to Kenya.
Per the decision, countries that want to be included on a list of developed country donors can “signal interest” through bilateral, confidential consultations before COP18 and every alternate COP after.
Finally, countries also agreed on criteria to shape and resource a new, permanent financial mechanism to protect nature after 2030.
However, this did not immediately take the form of a new fund under the COP that biodiverse countries have demanded since 2022, deferring the mechanism’s institutional structure to COP18.
Resource mobilisation discussions at the GBF’s halfway mark were supposed to agree on how to close the “biodiversity finance gap” and to “increase resources from all sources” to “at least” $200bn per year by 2030, as set out in target 19 of the GBF.
The talks were largely dominated by a push, led by the JUSCANZ bloc of developed countries, to “broaden the contributor base”. This could see emerging economies, such as Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia and India, being added to the list of countries that pay to protect nature.
Article 20 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) states that developed countries “shall provide new and additional financial resources” to developing countries to meet the costs of implementing measures to protect nature.
