El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Countries are under pressure to make progress on a first-ever global plastics treaty this week, but they face tense negotiations in the Canadian capital with parties deeply divided over what the treaty should include as talks begin on Tuesday.
If governments can agree on a legally binding treaty that addresses not just how plastics are discarded, but also how much plastic is produced and how it is used, the treaty could become the most significant pact to address global climate-warming emissions since the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The production of plastics accounts for some 5 per cent of climate emissions and could grow to 20 per cent by 2050 unless limited, according to a report last week from the U.S. federal Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
When countries agreed in 2022 to negotiate a legally binding treaty by the end of this year, they called for addressing the full lifecycle of plastics - from production and use to waste.
But as negotiations kick off in Ottawa, there is staunch oppositionfrom the petrochemical lobby and some governments dependent on fossil fuels to limiting production or banning certain chemicals.
Thousands of delegates, including negotiators, lobbyists and non-profit observers, were expected at the Ottawa summit, the fourth negotiating round ahead of a final agreement due in December - making this one of the fastest UN-led treaty efforts to date.
They were greeted by protesters staging a "die-in" - laying down and pretending they are dead - on Tuesday morning across from the negotiations' venue.
"This process is without doubt an accelerated and ambitious one, because we don't have decades to act," said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
The chair of the Ottawa negotiations told Reuters he planned to split national delegates into seven working groups this week to work on unresolved issues, including what the treaty should include and how it should be implemented.
"Time is not our best ally," said summit chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso, who is also Ecuador's vice minister of foreign affairs.
Steven Guilbeault, Canada's environment minister, told the opening plenary: "We now need to narrow down the options, identify where there is growing consensus and make real progress on the agreement," adding that the pact should establish targets and eliminate unnecessary single-use plastics and chemicals.
During the last treaty talks in November in Nairobi, there was strong support from 130 governments for requiring companies to disclose how much plastic they produce, and which chemicals they use in the process.
With plastics production on track to triple by 2060, supporters say such disclosures are a basic first step in controlling harmful plastic waste – the vast majority of which ends up as trash marring landscapes, clogging waterways or in landfill - and harming public health.
Almost a fifth of the world's plastic waste is burned, which releases high amounts of carbon emissions. Less than 10 per cent of it is recycled, according to UN data.
However, a handful of fossil fuel-dependent nations calling themselves the "Like-Minded Countries" have argued against limiting production or banning certain chemicals. The group, which includes Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, says the treaty should focus only on tracking plastic waste.
The position is shared by the petrochemical industry.
"We are looking at the agreement to accelerate actions that industry is already doing on its own," such as boosting recycling and redesigning plastic products, said Stewart Harris, a spokesperson for the International Council of Chemical Associations.
Saudi officials declined to comment. The state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco has said it plans by 2030 to be sending nearly one-third of its produced oil to petrochemical plants to make plastics.
China, which produces roughly a third of the world's plastic, "has always attached great importance to the control of plastic pollution and is willing to work with other countries to make joint progress in negotiations," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
In the opening session, key regional blocs outlined some key elements they want to see in a treaty.
The Asia Pacific group said that countries should receive financial and technical assistance for waste management infrastructure as they take on new obligations under the agreement.
The Africa group called for the creation of a new multilateral fund to help developing countries meet new obligations under a treaty and called attention to the fact that the continent has become a target for illegal trade of plastic waste and urged negotiators to prioritize "waste prevention and reduction before non-toxic waste recycling and disposals."
It is unclear whether the majority of countries asking for production limits can persuade the holdouts to support such a measure. Environmental groups and scientists say production limits are essential.
"More plastic production means more plastic pollution," said Bjorn Beeler, international coordinator of the International Pollutants Elimination Network.
That point was underscored in a letter published on Tuesday by 30 scientists comprising the Scientists Coalition, who have told negotiators that caps on plastic production are the only way to tackle the problem and called on industry to provide detailed figures for production and disclose the chemicals they use to enable more efficient recycling of components.
The biggest generator of plastic waste, the U.S., has refrained from joining the negotiating blocs. Measures proposed by U.S. negotiators include requiring countries to tackle certain chemicals that have raised public health concerns as well as "single use" plastic products that are deemed wasteful.
A State Department official told Reuters the U.S. delegation wanted the treaty to be ambitious in its goals – but to let governments decide how they would reach those goals, similar to the structure of the Paris Climate Agreement.
More than 60 countries making up the so-called High-Ambition Coalition, including European Union members, Mexico, Australia, Japan and Rwanda - and most recently Ukraine, are also arguing for a strong treaty that tackles production and requires transparency and controls for chemicals used in the process.
But unlike the U.S., they argue the treaty must impose global measures and targets rather than a system of national action plans.
Some Democratic U.S. lawmakers, including a delegation attending the opening of the negotiations, called on the U.S. to join the coalition and support stricter measures, even if Congress will not ratify the treaty.
"The Paris model is a wishing well strategy where you hope that just having conversations will take us down a path of reducing plastic pollution," Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley told Reuters. "A treaty should include binding obligations and constraints."
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Katy Daigle, Josie Kao, Mark Potter and Marguerita Choy)
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
A 15-year old boy who was critically injured after a stabbing in Nepean on Thursday has died of his injuries, Ottawa's English public school board said Sunday.
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
The Maple Leafs battled back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with consecutive 2-1 victories - including one that required extra time - in their first-round playoff series to push the club's Original Six rival to the limit before suffering a devastating Game 7 overtime loss.
Amid scientists' warnings that nations need to transition away from fossil fuels to limit climate change, Canadians are still lukewarm on electric vehicles, according to a study conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News.
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.
Thieves killed two Australians and an American on a surfing trip to Mexico in order to steal their truck, particularly because they wanted the tires, authorities said Sunday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.