United States backs treaty to fight plastic
France Media Agency
November 18, 2021 | 5:00 p.m.
NAIROBI, Kenya – The United States on Thursday supported negotiations on a treaty to tackle plastic pollution, ending a major delay in international efforts to clean up the world’s oceans and save the world. marine life.
During a visit to the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States would support talks in the Kenyan capital in February on a treaty to fight plastic.
“Our goal is to create a tool we can use to protect our oceans and all the life they support from the growing global damage from plastic pollution,†said Blinken.
“As we know, our health – our survival – is linked to the health of our oceans. We need to do more to protect them,†he said.
About eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans each year, killing or injuring a million birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals, according to UN figures.
The Blinken Declaration is the latest American effort to strengthen environmental protection under President Joe Biden, who has made tackling climate change a key national priority.
Likely aware of the political realities in a divided Washington, where treaties must be ratified by the Senate, Blinken called for a plastic treaty in which countries would develop their own plans of action.
The United States, however, has seen bipartisan calls to clean up the oceans with former President Donald Trump signing an act to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans.
But environmentalists say the previous administration hampered international efforts by opposing a treaty and blaming the problem squarely on China – a major source of plastic processing but materials often sourced from the West.
In 2019, the United States did not join the 180 or so governments that agreed in Geneva to create a legally binding framework to regulate plastic waste.
The United States did not vote because it is not a party to the Basel Convention, a United Nations treaty concluded in 1989 that regulates the movement of hazardous wastes.