Negotiators gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday in a final push to create a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution.
It’s the fifth time the world’s nations convene to craft a legally binding plastic pollution accord. In addition to the national delegations, representatives from the plastics industry, scientists and environmentalists have come to shape how the world tackles the surging problem.
“We must end plastic pollution before plastic pollution ends us,” Kim Wansup, South Korea’s minister of environment, said during the opening session.
The planet is “ choking on plastic, ” according to the United Nations. It’s polluting lakes, rivers, oceans and people’s bodies.
AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports the fifth and final round of negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty begins in South Korea.
“Don’t kick the can, or the plastic bottle, down the road,” U.N. Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a message to negotiators.
This “is an issue about the intergenerational justice of those generations that will come after us and be living with all this garbage. We can solve this and we must get it done in Busan,” she said in an interview.
The previous four global meetings have revealed sharp differences in goals and interests. This week’s talks go through Saturday.
Led by Norway and…
