I looked with great surprise at the title of a recent report by the Reuters agency: Oil, chemical industry lobbyists flood UN talks on cutting plastic pollution (Volcovici & Dickie 2024). Some 200 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists planned to participate in the latest United Nations negotiations on the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution; a 37% jump from the previous gathering in November 2023. This immediately brings to mind the “overrepresentation” of fossil fuel industry lobbyists at last year's COP28 climate change talks. Registered fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumbered the combined 180 diplomatic representatives of European Union delegations! It is very understandable that each side defends its views, but is there any doubt that the masses of plastic waste scattered all over the planet have dire consequences.
