Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment Anja Krieger

What happened at the INC-3 in Kenya? Recap 3/3.

“If a credible majority of states can come together and adopt global rules to prevent plastic pollution, they can also do the similar things on climate change, on biological diversity, and indeed also other issues of environmental and global concern,” Magnus Løvold says. He was present as an observer at all negotiation meetings towards the #PlasticsTreaty and shares the story so far on the podcast - a game with shaky rules. How will the saga continue? Will we see courageous states stepping up to stop plastic pollution? Stay tuned!

If you like this show, support the production! Go to anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/support/

Read „Points of Order" - independent reporting on multilateral processes, treaty-making and diplomacy" by Magnus Løvold and Torbjørn Graff Hugo: medium.com/points-of-order

Music: Dorian Roy
Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
All production: Anja Krieger

What happened at the INC-2 in France? Recap 2/3.

The negotiations for the global plastics treaty are haunted by major issues that have long stalled progress on other problems as well, like climate change and biodiversity loss. To understand what’s happening, Anja teamed up with Magnus Løvold, an expert in diplomacy and international law. Magnus was present at all the meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee for the plastics treaty - the so-called “INC”. Here comes the second part of their recap of plastic diplomacy: They take you to Paris in the summer of 2023, where the second negotiating meeting took place, to learn what happened there.

A note: If you haven’t listened to our recap of the first INC in Uruguay, we recommend to go back an episode and start listening there.

Episode transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2024/04/01/transcript-plastic-treaty-making-part2/

Music: Dorian Roy
Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
All production: Anja Krieger

What happened at the INC-1 in Uruguay? Recap 1/3.

This year, 2024, is the crucial year for the plastics treaty negotiations. If you haven’t heard about them, the United Nations are working on an international, legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. It’s been called the most important environmental deal since the Paris climate accord.

Many countries want it to be an ambitious agreement that covers the full lifecycle of plastics, from production to disposal. But some countries are not so keen on this, and they have held up the development of the treaty. How and why exactly did they do this, and is there still hope for a strong and effective international agreement?

To explore this, Anja connected with Magnus Løvold, an expert in Peace and Conflict Studies, and advisor with Lex International and NAIL, the Norwegian Academy of International Law. In his blog „Points of Order“, Magnus describes his observations at the diplomatic meetings he attends.

This is the first of three parts of the conversation. Magnus and Anja will take you back into each meeting of the treaty negotiations - INC-1 in Uruguay, INC-2 in France and INC-3 in Kenya. We’ll talk diplomacy and give you a better understanding of what’s going on on the international stage.

Read our guest's blog: "Points of Order" - independent reporting on multilateral processes, treaty-making and diplomacy" by Magnus Løvold and Torbjørn Graff Hugo: https://medium.com/points-of-order

Episode transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2024/03/08/transcript-plastic-treaty-making-part1/
Music: Dorian Roy
Cover: Maren von Stockhausen

If you like this show, support the production! Go to https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/support/

You’ve probably heard of bioplastics, these new kinds of plastics that are marketed as environmentally friendly. If you’ve been following this show, you might know the episode from 2019 in which Anja tried to better understand this group of materials and the confusion around it. If you haven't listened, here it is: https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/ep-7-bioplastics

After speaking to several experts from science, industry and NGOs, Anja came away with the conclusion that bioplastics have their own issues, and that they won’t be a silver bullet for solving plastic pollution. That was five years ago. Since then, things have developed - and Anja repeatedly heard about one material that people put a lot of hope in: PHA, short for polyhydroxyalkanoates. The interesting thing is that PHAs are made by bacteria, but we only covered them shortly in our previous episode.

Now the people over at The Indisposable Podcast just posted an episode that covers this in greater detail. If you don’t know their podcast yet, do check it out! The Indisposable Podcast is produced by Upstream, a change agency in the US that works on the transition from the throw-away economy to one that is regenerative, circular and equitable. You can visit them at https://upstreamsolutions.org/

They recently had Lisa Erdle on the show, who works for 5 Gyres. 5Gyres is the NGO from California that has been leading the plastic discussion since the very beginning. It was their founders who first sampled all five ocean gyres for plastic pollution. Find out more here: https://www.5gyres.org/

Lisa shares their latest research with Upstream’s host, Brooking Gatewood: They tested biodegradable products in different environments, from a desert to the sea. Enjoy listening!

Find more episodes of The Indisposable Podcast here:
https://upstreamsolutions.org/podcast

- A heads-up for all international listeners: This the first-ever episode in German. If you don't speak the language, don't despair. The next episode in English is already in the works! -

This episode features an in-depth panel in German language on solutions to plastic pollution with experts in ecotoxicology, the reuse economy and politics, including the lead negotiator of Germany for the plastics treaty. Anja, host of Plastisphere, also speaks at the event organized by Exit Plastik, a German alliance of NGOs, at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. It was part of the first German civil society conference on plastics.

Wir sprechen über das globale Abkommen der Vereinten Nationen, das dieses Jahr fertig verhandelt werden soll, über Mehrwegsysteme und ihre Vorteile, die Chemikalien im Plastik und das Wachstum der Branche - und wir schauen in die Zukunft. Viel Vergnügen bei unserer Panel-Diskussion dazu, wie wir das Plastikproblem lösen können.

Weitere Infos gibt es bei https://exit-plastik.de/
Transkript (bearbeitete/gekürzte Podcast-Fassung): Folgt demnächst!

Mit:
Alexandra Caterbow (HEJ Support)
Jane Muncke (Food Packaging Forum)
Axel Borchmann (BMUV)
André Lang-Herfurth (Mehrwegverband und zerooo)
Anja Krieger (Plastisphere Podcast)

Die Exit-Plastik-Konferenz fand am 6. Februar 2024 in Berlin statt. Zum Bündnis Exit Plastik gehören: HEJSupport, Forum Umwelt & Entwicklung, Greenpeace, der Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz, Zero Waste Germany und Kiel, a tip:tap, die Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung und Women Engage for a Common Future. Exit Plastik ist Teil der globalen Bewegung BreakFreeFromPlastic.

Welcome again to Plastisphere, the podcast on plastics, people, the planet – and politics! Today, the INC-3, the third round of negotiations towards a global plastic treaty, will wrap up in Nairobi – and Anja received a timely message from one of the attending journalists: Julien Gupta is a freelance journalist from Germany working on climate and the environment. He says some of what he observed at INC-3 in Nairobi very much surprised him. Listen to his message from yesterday, Saturday, November 18th, 2023.

You can find the CIEl report referenced by Julien here: https://www.ciel.org/news/fossil-fuel-and-chemical-industries-at-inc-3/

If you’d like to learn more about the role of science in the negotiations, listen to our episode from earlier this year, “Science over Profit”: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/05/12/ep13-plastictreaty/

Find out more about the Scientists 'Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty here: https://ikhapp.org/scientistscoalition/

If you are currently at the negotiations in Nairobi and have comments to share, we’d be super grateful to hear about them! Send Anja a voice message by following the instructions on the Plastisphere website: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/

For German listeners, you can follow Juliens reporting here: https://steadyhq.com/de/treibhauspost/newsletter/sign_up
https://taz.de/teamzukunft