"Plastic pollution is not just wrecking our environment, it's entering our bodies, starting from infancy," said one campaigner. "How our food is packaged is designed for profit, not for people's health."
Civil society will push states to act in line with their existing legal obligations to phase out all fossil fuels—including by advancing a Fossil Fuel Treaty that can govern a just and rights-based transition.
Committing $144 million to study microplastics while subsidizing fossil fuels by nearly $31 billion a year is like trying to clean up an oil spill with a spoon while the tanker is still spewing.
"Systemic change is needed 'from the cradle to the grave' of plastic production, use, and disposal," said the lead author, calling for "ambitious action from governments and industry transparency."
Inaction now carries a clearer cost than ever: At UNEA-7 in Nairobi—the environmental capital of the world—the “Nairobi Spirit” can convert shared challenges into shared action.
"These corporations and their partners continue to sell the public a comforting lie to hide the hard truth: that we simply have to stop producing so much plastic," said one campaigner.
The latest round of negations show just how difficult it is to enforce humanitarian and ecological objectives which go against the interests of the oil industry and oil-producing countries.
