Nearly 200 fossil fuel, chemical lobbyists to join plastic treaty talks in Ottawa
Nearly 200 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists plan to join this week’s United Nations negotiations on the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution — a 37 per cent jump from the previous gathering in November, an analysis released on Thursday showed.
The jump in registered industry representatives at the negotiations in Ottawa, Canada, comes as talks enter a crucial stage. There is just one round of negotiations left to hammer out a final text that all countries agree on by the end of the year.
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Groups representing more specialized parts of the plastics industry are also making their presence felt in Ottawa, hosting events and receptions on the sidelines of the negotiations.
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The Vinyl Institute, which represents the PVC/vinyl industry, previously hosted a cocktail party at the November negotiations in Nairobi. The event was aimed at attracting key country delegations, including from the U.S. State Department, according to emails and recordings obtained by watchdog group Documented and reviewed by Reuters.
“We decided going into INC-3 we wanted to be likeable,” Dom Decaria, technical director at the Vinyl Institute, said in a speech to an industry event in Austin on Dec. 6. “We wanted to have presence, but we also wanted to be the group that people from these member states are just comfortable having a cup of coffee with.”
The Institute is again present at the Ottawa talks.
Decaria told Reuters this week that it wants to be part of the negotiations to see where positions can converge.
“Our mission right now is to see how can we as industry bring common ground together with all stakeholders,” he said.
