Exclusive-In a change, US backs global target to reduce plastic production, source says By Reuters

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States, one of the world’s biggest plastic producers, will back a global treaty that calls for a reduction in the amount of new plastic produced each year in a major policy shift, a source close to American negotiators. Wednesday.

The shift from its previous calls to leave such decisions up to individual countries puts the US in direct opposition to countries such as Saudi Arabia and China.

Those countries have argued that the hoped-for United Nations treaty, which negotiators are scheduled to conclude at a November summit in Busan, South Korea, should ignore production issues and focus on downstream measures, such as encouraging recycling and changing packaging design.

The talks in Busan will take place after the November 5 US presidential election, in which Vice President Kamala Harris faces off against former President Donald Trump.

Trump has previously shunned global environmental accords and pulled the US out of the UN Paris climate accord.

COUNTRIES WITH HIGH AMBITION

The policy shift also aligns the US more closely with a group of so-called high ambition countries, which includes EU member states, South Korea, Canada, Rwanda and Peru, and has called for a global treaty on plastics to limit and gradually reduce plastic production.

The group also targeted a list of chemicals of environmental concern used in plastic production that should be phased out.

The US is also now supporting work to create a possible global list of chemicals that should be phased out to avoid a “motley” of different national requirements, as well as to establish global criteria to identify what should either on a list of “avoidable plastic products” to phase out, the source said.

Debate over whether a UN treaty should try to limit the amount of plastic produced drove the latest round of talks in Ottawa in April into overtime, with major plastic and petrochemical producers such as Saudi Arabia and China blocking further talks on production limits, arguing that countries should focus on less controversial topics such as plastic waste management.

The EU and others have expressed concern that ongoing divisions among countries over the scope of the treaty will make it difficult to close the Busan negotiations.

They launched an effort called “Bridge to Busan” to keep “alive” the plastic production targets in the treaty text at the Busan talks. The source did not say whether the US would support the effort.

The White House is informing stakeholders on Wednesday of its change in position “which increases ambition,” the source said.

The changes come ahead of a meeting in Bangkok alongside ongoing treaty negotiations later this month and after the US set out new policies to tackle plastic pollution last month.