Why was it important to hold a webinar on the Global Plastic Treaty
"This is an ongoing negotiation, which has the possibility to fundamentally change our relationships with plastics and our plastics lifestyles. There are options on the table addressing the entire plastics life cycle, from production to chemicals and polymers to products, to use, and to waste. Plastics are an important group of materials that do have essential uses in several sectors, but the indiscriminate production and use is not sustainable. We need to see significant changes," says Prof. Bethanie Carney Almroth.
What is the role of science in the ongoing global plastics treaty negotiations?
"Scientific evidence underlies to the very premises of the negotiations, informing our understanding of the problems associated with plastics and the need for globally coordinated action. We know that pollution occurs at every step of the life cycle, and that plastics causes both environmental harm and impacts human health. Plastics are central to the triple planetary crisis, with mechanisms impacting climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Evidence of adverse health impacts of exposure to plastics chemicals is robust, and emerging evidences also point to health impacts of exposure to micro- and nanoparticles. It is essential that robust, independent science is use to support evidence-based decision making so that we might find solutions that are safer and more sustainable, and so that we can avoid false solutions or regrettable substitutions."
What were the most important insights gained during the webinar?
"I took the opportunity to present the state-of-the-art science around plastics pollution, and Sylvain reported on the EU's approach to some of the issues at hand. Regulating chemicals in plastics will be essential, and banning or restricting known toxic chemicals, using a hazard-based and grouping approach is a good first step to mitigating some of the harm. The EU's approach to some of the issues at hand is ambitious and the EU is calling for reductions in primary plastics production."
Tell us a bit about your commitment to the Scientist’s Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty
"I was one of the founders of the Scientists' Coalition, starting with a few concerned scientists who were looking for means of communicating science in the negotiating process. We hope that there will be a formalized science-policy interface in the future treaty, but this did not exist for the negotiating process, and we saw that member state delegates in some cases lacked access to science and to experts."
"We have grown to a global coalition with more than 400 scientists from 64 countries with experts across scientific disciplines and with a breadth of contextual knowledge from different world regions. Due to our strict governance and membership rules, we have built a lot of credibility in both our scientists and in our outputs. For the past two years, we have been working to support member state delegates that lack the necessary experts or expertise to be able to participate in the negotiations in a meaningful manner, but also with regions like the EU. We have worked with closely with the EU presidency, helping to ensure that their positions were firmly grounded in robust science."
