Congressional delegation ‘pushing, pushing, pushing' US to be aggressive at treaty talks

Ottawa, Ontario — The first congressional delegation to the United Nations' plastics treaty talks came hoping to pressure President Joe Biden's administration to take stronger positions in the negotiations, arguing that moves from the U.S. could help break a policy logjam.

The group of five Democratic lawmakers came to the negotiations in Ottawa, which formally opened April 23, saying the U.S. needs to support stronger global rules while pushing back on administration claims that the U.S. negotiating position is limited by domestic laws.

The delegation was led by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., a key author of the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, and included Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., author of the Reduce Act, which would tax virgin resin to fund plastic waste cleanups and boost the use of recycled resin.

Members of the delegation also said the treaty should include stronger provisions addressing potential health risks from chemicals in plastics.

"We've got to push for outcomes in this negotiation that are real, practical and immediate," Whitehouse said at an April 23 side event. "We cannot follow the failed trail of nebulous ambitions and out-year distant pledges."

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the main House sponsor of Break Free, said the Biden administration needs to bring its plastics treaty position in line with stronger positions it has on global climate, public health and biodiversity agreements.

"We want to push our own negotiators to do better," Huffman said. "We've got an American negotiating position that was sort of staked out under a prior administration, where all this was decided essentially by the fossil fuel and chemical industry."

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said at the same event, sponsored by Ocean Conservancy and the Nature Conservancy, that the treaty must support reducing plastic production and increasing recycling and the use of recycled materials.

"We are pushing, pushing, pushing that the United States, in these negotiations, be aggressive," Welch said.

A senior U.S. diplomat said at an April 22 event that the United States wants to be an "honest broker" in talks that have split between 60-plus countries in the High Ambition Coalition that advocate a more aggressive treaty and a smaller group of petrochemical producers like Iran and Saudi Arabia that want flexibility for national governments.

Undersecretary of State Jose Fernandez said the U.S. "recognizes the urgency" of getting a treaty and favors one with universal obligations on countries, but he also noted limitations in the U.S. political system and strong differences among nations.

"One of the biggest obstacles from our perspective will be to ensure that we work hard to bridge the differences between countries in order to keep negotiations constructive," he said.

"We need to work … on drafting potential compromises and also on addressing some of the issues that may still divide our positions."

But the lawmakers argued that the U.S. should stake out a stronger position, and they urged countries to be open to new approaches to overcoming opposition of what Whitehouse termed a small number of "laggard states" holding up the talks.

Countries have not yet agreed on basic rules of decision-making in the plastics treaty, even though they are in the fourth of five planned negotiating sessions.

That lack of agreement on decision-making — by vote or by unanimous consensus — could still blow up the talks.

"We've got to be prepared to deal with the abuse of the consensus process here by a tiny minority of recalcitrant, do-nothing states," Whitehouse said, suggesting steps like having a "split-level" deal where all nations join one section but there are separate provisions for higher-ambition countries.

"If we say to everybody, 'We're only going to do things through consensus,' then they're empowered," he said. "If we say we'll see how reasonable you are and then we'll do consensus or not, that's a whole different strategy."

Huffman, Merkley, Welch and Whitehouse also joined an April 16 letter to U.N. officials and President Biden saying plastics-producing companies and industrial sectors were having undue influence in the treaty. They urged more financial disclosure around business participation.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we had full disclosure of everyone in a conference like this that has ties to the fossil fuel or the chemical industry?" Huffman noted. "That's the only way we're going to keep them from co-opting this process just like they have the various [negotiations] on climate."

But Plastics Industry Association CEO Matt Seaholm said industry representatives make up a small percentage of delegates at the treaty talks, adding that industry should be part of the talks.

"It's odd to me that a democratically elected member of the United States Congress would encourage employers in the United States to stay out of discussions that are directly related to everything they do on a daily basis," he said. "Our members have the innovators, they have the engineers, they've got the resources to be part of this solution."

The lawmakers also said they hoped the treaty would have provisions to address health concerns around chemicals in plastics.

The fifth member of the delegation, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said the treaty should contain provisions to boost research and gather information on the health effects of chemicals in plastics to help governments target better responses.

"I know that this treaty is especially about plastics and plastic pollution, but I do think that a really important component is human health," she said at a side event in Ottawa.

"If we can encourage the wealthiest countries to do much more research on health effects and create a worldwide commission that gathers that data and information and constantly updates it, that would help people like Sheldon and I to pass legislation in the United States," she said.

"If you know what the harm is and can document the harm, it's much easier to mandate that certain kinds of plastics can't be used because they're so toxic," she added.

Whitehouse said treaty discussions have broadened from an initial focus on waste management to chemical health impacts. He said the treaty should try to set some global standards.

"It's really important that we set these global rules so that all boats get lifted to a proper decent standard that is consistent with proper human health," Whitehouse said. "This stuff is in us. It's in mothers' milk. It's in babies. It crosses the blood-brain barrier. This is becoming a real public health issue."