The search for a global plastics pact

May 30, 2023

THE BIG IDEA

A mountain of plastic is pictured.

Will 170 countries be able to curb plastic waste? | Ben Curtis/AP Photo

PLASTICS IN PARIS — U.N. negotiators are descending on Paris for the second round of negotiations around a global plastics treaty.

Talks that started Monday and end Friday are aimed at coming up with an agreement by the end of 2024 to do something about plastic waste. The fault lines are pretty clear, as are the areas of agreement, as Leonie Cater and our Jordan Wolman report. What's not clear is if they can find enough common ground to start working on a draft text ahead of the next session.

There are three camps, broadly:

— The "High Ambition Coalition," led by Norway and Rwanda and including more than 50 countries and the EU, which is pushing for “bans and restrictions” to eliminate “problematic plastics” along with global baselines and targets.

— The U.S. and...unclear who else besides the American Chemistry Council, who want individual countries to be allowed to set their own targets.

The U.S. doesn't accept the "high-ambition" framing: "I don’t concede on ambition in any way, shape, or form," Monica Medina, who stepped down as the State Department's top environmental negotiator in April, told Jordan earlier this month. "We are just as ambitious." Both the U.S. and the HAC want to end plastic pollution by 2040.

— Saudi Arabia, which wants U.S.-style flexibility but also to only be obligated to do things like “providing engineering departments with circularity requirements for components” and agreeing to exchange “best practices in recycling between nations.”

High-ambition countries are expressing worry Saudi Arabia will peel off other oil-rich countries that want to keep selling to plastics producers. Environmentalists, meanwhile, are raising concern that chemical recycling will be given a prominent role at the expense of reuse and other policies. They're also complaining that the U.N. is limiting NGO attendance at the conference to one representative per group.

There are signs of movement: The United Arab Emirates — the host of this year’s COP28 climate summit — didn't sign the High Ambition Coalition's most recent statement, even though it is a member. But Japan, a major generator of plastic waste, just signed up to the High Ambition Coalition on Friday, Leonie reports.

Still, things aren't off to a great start. Negotiations have been stalled for two days over a disagreement on voting procedures, according to an industry representative on the ground. Saudi Arabia, China and India are pushing for a voting procedure that requires consensus, while the EU and U.S. are in favor of a two-thirds threshold.

"We're wondering if this week is going to be a wash," said the representative, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely about the sensitive matter.

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WASHINGTON WATCH

DEBT DEAL — Sunday's debt ceiling agreement between the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) steered clear of major changes to permitting rules for energy projects, save one: the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would deliver natural gas from West Virginia into the Southeast.

The surprise side deal approves all outstanding permits for the pipeline, to the dismay of environmentalists and the joy of Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va).

Read more from Josh Siegel.

EXTREMES

LIKE AN ABSENTEE NEIGHBOR — State Farm is pulling out of California, raising questions about the policies the Golden State has put in place to address rising wildfire risks, Tom Frank reports for POLITICO's E&E News.

State Farm said Friday it would stop writing new property insurance policies in the state effective immediately. It cited “rapidly growing catastrophe exposure,” but also rising costs of construction and reinsurance, which insurance companies buy to pay the excessive claims they incur.

State figures show that State Farm has recorded substantial profits in seven of the past eight years for property and casualty insurance, which includes coverage for homeowners, renters and motorists.

But insurers don't like a new rule that the state's insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, imposed in October forcing them to give discounts to residents and businesses that protect their property against wildfire damage through steps such as installing fire-resistant roofs.

AROUND THE NATION

FLORIDA MAN CONFUSING — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is all over the place when it comes to environmental protection, Bruce Ritchie reports. He campaigned for improving water quality during his first gubernatorial run, and still earns plaudits from the Everglades Foundation for his focus on restoration funding.

A day after he officially entered the presidential race, he told conservative radio host Erick Erickson that “I want to conserve Florida, leave it to God better than we found it.”

In the same interview, he said electric vehicles make Americans dependent on Chinese manufacturing and noted that he pressed Florida Republicans to pass tax breaks for people who buy gas stoves — a product that’s become a culture war issue. He dismisses climate change while funding cities' efforts to contend with rising sea levels.

Jane West, policy and planning director at 1000 Friends of Florida, called DeSantis’ environmental record “confusing — and hypocritical.”

“You can’t just concisely say it is terrible or it’s great,” West said. “It’s more nuanced than that. And I think that was probably done on purpose.”

AROUND THE WORLD

FLIGHT RISK — A top European official is coming under fire for relying on carbon offsets to ameliorate his heavy aviation footprint, Nicolas Camut, Federica Di Sario and Mari Eccles report.

The European Council is seeking carbon credits to offset the air travel of European Council President Charles Michel, who flies a lot — 46 international trips in 2022, 28 of them private.

A council spokesperson pointed to the benefits of paying a Brazilian ceramics factory to switch to renewable energy, as the agency has been doing since 2021. But environmentalists aren't buying it.

It’s a “fake climate solution,” said Jo Dardenne, aviation director at Brussels-based clean mobility NGO Transport & Environment. Companies and individuals use it, she added, to “clear their guilty conscience when they board fossil-guzzling private jets."

YOU TELL US

GAME ON — Welcome to the Long Game, where we tell you about the latest on efforts to shape our future. We deliver data-driven storytelling, compelling interviews with industry and political leaders, and news Tuesday through Friday to keep you in the loop on sustainability.

Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn and reporters Jordan Wolman and Allison Prang. Reach us all at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com, jwolman@politico.com and aprang@politico.com.

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WHAT WE'RE CLICKING

— The expansion of recycling efforts across the country has Wall Street making a dash for cash in trash, the Wall Street Journal reports.

— Soaring borrowing costs are further complicating efforts to combat global warming in countries most vulnerable to climate change. Bloomberg has that story.

— A literal logjam — as big as Manhattan — that is trapping millions of tons of carbon could be threatened by global warming, according to the Washington Post.

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