The Guardian view of plastic pollution: There is an urgent need for global work to deal with this scourge Editorial

PThe last pollution reached the most remote and unable to reach from our besieged planet. It was found in the ice cover in Greenland, near the summit of Mount Everest, and in the deepest depths of the Western Pacific Ocean. Nature programs have The alarm appeared On a man -made crisis that has become an environmental scourge A serious threat to our health. However, the global production of plastic is running about three times to more than a billion tons annually by 2060, after an increase of more than 200 times over the past 75 years.

This dark background should pump a sense of urgency into unstable talks in Switzerland this week, which aims to agree to a binding global plastic treaty. In 2022, when 173 countries adhered to work for such an agreement, there was a widespread relief that at the end it was scheduled to be a multilateral road towards solving a perfect global problem. Unfortunately, with the gathering of delegates in Geneva, there are reasons for fear.

Since the major oil -producing countries seek to circumvent the consequences of green transition, manufacturing on fossil fuel for plastic has become a major battlefield. During five rounds of negotiations, for three years, “a”Petrochemical block“Under the leadership of Russia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they have stopped and erupted attempts to agree on a decrease in production. As a recent investigation by the attached guardian, companies capturing the talks became a major problem as well. The pressure groups in the industry have sought to control these discussions and enhance the unreasonable arm in the form of new traditional areas.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is unlikely to improve the really ambitious reset prospects. On the first day of his second term, Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, which indicates Support for large oil. There are already signs that in Geneva, the United States plans to align itself with their fellow fossil fuels to resist any attempt to agree to a decrease in the production of virgin plastic.

Looking at such opposite winds, the diligent repetition volume. Before talking this week, Expert review In Lancet, it was described as “risk, increasing and unknown to human health and planets.” Thanks to TV series such as Blue Planet II, the dangerous effect is understood on relatively integrated marine ecosystems. But plastic production also contributes More than 3 % Annual global greenhouse emissions. More importantly, its presence everywhere in daily life means that chemical additives and pollutants find their way to human bodies. According to the Lancet report, the world’s health damage adds up to 1.1 pounds £ annually, with infants and children in particular.

Continuing to work as usual, while searching for unlikely technological reforms, will not be good enough. An urgent need for the maximum global production, although achieving this in Geneva seems to be a long arrangement. In last November talks in South Korea, more than 100 countries supported legally binding discounts, but negotiations collapsed without agreement.

An some kind of consensus can be found on the need to eliminate Half 400 meters It produces every year. It will be at least the beginning. After years of confusion and delay, something tangible should appear from Switzerland.