Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA-02) led their colleagues today in a letter to encourage U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to push for decisive measures in addressing plastic production at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC)’s current session next month. The lawmakers emphasized the imminent danger plastic poses to public health, national security, and the planet’s future throughout its life-cycle and advocated for a vigorous stance in the negotiations.
“The international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution is an unprecedented opportunity for the world to come together to address our plastic pollution crisis and our climate crisis in tandem. We ask you to use U.S. influence to support a commensurately ambitious agreement that will address all aspects of the plastic pollution crisis enabling Congress to then pass implementing legislation,” escribieron los legisladores.
The letter was signed by U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Peter Welch (D-VT), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and U.S. Representatives Ro Khanna (D-CA-17), Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO-05), Nanette Díaz Barragán (D-CA-44), Kevin Mullin (D-CA-15), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC-AL), Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-09), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ-12), Katie Porter (D-CA-47), Delia C. Ramirez (D-IL-03), Robert Garcia (D-CA-42), Seth Magaziner (D-RI-02), Adam Schiff (D-CA-30), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), Hank Johnson (D-GA-04), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D-NJ-10), David Trone (D-MD-06), Ed Case (D-HI-01), Melanie Stansbury (D-NM-01), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-12), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA-10), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03), Eric Swalwell (D-CA-14), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY-13), and Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA-38).
The lawmakers called on the Biden administration to demonstrate leadership and ambition in addressing plastic pollution during the INC session by endorsing the following objectives in negotiations:
- A meaningful instrument must include binding production limits.
- Rules of procedure must be adopted that stop a small number of plastic-producing countries from undermining the rest of the world’s efforts to address the plastic production crisis, and;
- Parties to the agreement must be allowed the tools to protect themselves and their economies.
Merkley is a leader in Congress on combatting plastic pollution. In his role as the Chair of the Environment and Public Works subcommittee overseeing environmental justice and chemical safety, Merkley has held a series of hearings investigating plastic production and pollution. Merkley’s hearings have examined: environmental and climate damage from plastics, impacts of plastics on environmental justice communities, reuse and refill systems, beverage container waste, and consumer challenges to recycling. Merkley, along with Representative Huffman, leads the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act, the most comprehensive plan ever introduced in Congress to address the plastic pollution crisis that is poisoning our air, water, and land, and disproportionately impacting communities of color and low-income Americans.
A quote sheet from organizations and frontline communities supporting the letter can be found aquí.
El texto completo de la carta se puede encontrar aquí y sigue a continuación:
Estimado Secretario Blinken,
The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution is an important opportunity for countries across the world to come together on a shared goal of protecting our planet from the harms of plastics. President Biden prioritized environmental justice in his April 21calle, 2023 Executive Order when he said that, “Our Nation needs an ambitious approach to environmental justice that is informed by scientific research, high-quality data, and meaningful Federal engagement with communities with environmental justice concerns… ” The U.S. needs to make the same commitment globally and that’s why we urge you to support the strongest agreement possible. We will work in Congress to pass laws supporting the finalized agreement provisions.
U.S. laws have clearly failed to protect Americans, and especially frontline communities, from the impacts of industrial facilities, including petrochemical production. The result is that communities of color and low-wealth communities already overburdened with pollution continue to be targeted for the siting of polluting facilities. This is why we have and will continue to push for legislation that addresses the plastic production and pollution crisis in Congress. We urge you to push for the strongest agreement possible independent of the situation in the U.S.
While it would be a disappointment if the world’s biggest plastic producers do not initially sign onto an ambitious agreement, it would be an even greater failure to negotiate a final agreement that lacks ambition commensurate with the scope of the problem or omits the fundamental elements needed to address it. The world can come together to address plastic production and pollution which will make significant strides in tackling this problem. A strong agreement will change markets and business models, and better enable implementing legislation in the U.S.
The U.S.’ recent ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to join 137 countries in limiting hydrofluorocarbons demonstrates that Congress can act to join an ambitious international agreement to address a shared environmental threat. The Kigali Amendment was ratified with bipartisan support after a coalition of manufacturers and environmentalists worked together to ensure that U.S. companies had access to foreign markets. We hope the world negotiates the necessary steps to fully address this crisis so that Congress can fulfill its role of taking up an agreement and ratifying it or passing the laws necessary to implement it.
As such, we urge the Department of State to support three negotiating principles:
- A meaningful instrument must include binding production limits.
- Rules of procedure must be adopted that stop a small number of plastic-producing countries from undermining the rest of the world’s efforts to address the plastic production crisis, and;
- Parties to the agreement must be allowed the tools to protect themselves and their economies.
A meaningful instrument must include binding production limits.
Plastics are harmful across their entire lifecycle, from the toxic chemicals that are released during production of raw materials to the microplastics that result from plastic waste. An agreement that fails to meaningfully address plastic production with binding time-bound targets will not be a success.
Rules of procedure must be adopted that stop a small number of plastic-producing countries from undermining the rest of the world’s efforts to address the plastic production crisis.
There is strong global momentum to finalize an ambitious legally binding agreement by the end of 2024. While the goal of any negotiation is to reach a consensus product that all countries can support, the plastic pollution crisis is too dire to allow a small number of intransigent countries to delay or derail the process. The U.S. should push for the full application of rules and procedures that respect and uphold countries’ right to vote in order to enable robust collaboration and deliberation while ultimately allowing for a majority-driven process to protect ambition on a meaningful timeline.
Parties to the agreement must be allowed the tools to protect themselves and their economies.
Non-party trade provisions are essential to a strong agreement. They ensure that parties to the agreement are able to protect themselves and their economic interests from countries that do not join. We ask the U.S. to support robust trade provisions that provide a level playing field for industries everywhere that plastics are produced, safeguard progress made by agreement party states from being undermined by non-party states and ensure that industries in countries that cannot or will not join the agreement must play by the same rules as everyone else.
The international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution is an unprecedented opportunity for the world to come together to address our plastic pollution crisis and our climate crisis in tandem. We ask you to use U.S. influence to support a commensurately ambitious agreement that will address all aspects of the plastic pollution crisis enabling Congress to then pass implementing legislation.
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