After Geneva's failure, the US takes a tough stance on plastic pollution.

The failure of the sixth round of U.N. discussions on Friday to curb plastic production has dampened hopes for tackling this major source of pollution. Many supporters of restrictions are pessimistic that a global agreement will be reached during the Trump Administration.

Participants said that a three-year push for a legally binding treaty to reduce plastic pollution, which chokes the oceans and damages human health, now seems to be drifting.

Many states and activists blamed the failure of oil producers, including the United States. They said that the United States had hardened their long-held views and encouraged others to reject limits on new plastic production which would have curtailed output of polymers.

Debbra Cisneros is a Panamanian negotiator who told us that the United States was less open in the previous rounds under Joe Biden’s administration.

"This time, they just didn't want anything." "It was difficult because they were always against us on each of the key provisions," she said after the 11-day negotiations.

The anti-plastic campaigners did not expect Washington to change its position after President Donald Trump signed in February an executive order encouraging the purchase of plastic drinking straws by consumers.

Bjorn Bealer, International Coordinator of International Pollutants Elimination Network, a global network consisting of more than 600 public interest NGOs, said: "The mentality has changed, and they are looking to extract even more oil and natural gas from the ground."

The U.S. State Department didn't immediately respond to an inquiry about its position and role in the negotiations. John Thompson, the U.S. delegate to the talks, declined to answer questions about its outcome.

Washington expressed concern that the new regulations could raise the cost of all plastics. A spokesperson for the State Department said previously that each party must take actions according to their national context. Trump's administration has also reversed a number of U.S. environmental and climate policies, which it claims place an excessive burden on the national industry.

Washington also showed its strength in the talks on another global environmental accord earlier this week when it threatened to take action against states that supported a proposal intended to reduce shipping emissions.

Production limits are crucial for a coalition of 100+ countries looking to reach an ambitious agreement in Geneva.

Sivendra Michael, Fiji's delegates, compared excluding this clause to "sweeping the floor while not turning off the water."

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said that for every month of delay, nearly a half-million tons of plastic waste are accumulated - some of it washing up on beaches in island states.

"CONSENSUS IS DEAD"

Some participants blamed the organizers as well, the International Negotiating Committee Inc. (INC), an U.N.-established organization supported by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP).

The delegates were able to laugh and jeer at a formal meeting that lasted for less than one minute, an hour before midnight was set as the time when negotiations would conclude.

Ana Rocha Global Plastics Policy director for environmental group GAIA said, "No one understood. Everyone was shocked." It's like they are playing with children.

Agnes Pannier Runacher, France's Ecology Minister, called the proceedings "chaotic".

When asked what went wrong, INC chairman Luis Vayas Valdivieso attributed the failure to the division between the countries and referred to the negotiations as complex. "But we've made progress, and that is important," he added.

U.N. provisions rules require that all states agree. This is a constraint some find unworkable - especially in the context of a U.S. government that is moving away from multilateralism.

"Consensus has died." "You cannot agree on a deal in which all countries that produce and export oil and plastics can decide what the deal will be", said IPEN's Beeler.

Some delegates, campaigners and others suggested voting as a way to break the impasse or to abandon the U.N. led process altogether. The WWF, among others, called for ambitious states to pursue their own deal in the hopes of bringing plastics-producing countries on board later.

The talks produced two draft agreements, one of which was more ambitious than another. Both were rejected. The next meeting is not yet known. States have agreed to meet at a future date.

David Azoulay is the Managing Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law in Geneva. He said that it was a positive development when the top plastics producer, China, publicly acknowledged the importance of addressing the plastics' full life cycle. "This is a new development, and I believe this opens up an interesting opportunity." Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Emma Farge and Valerie Volcovici; Additional reporting in Washington by Hansen Holger and Valerie Volcovici Editing by Dave Graham & Tomaszjanowski

(source: Reuters)