GENEVA: Nations must resolve the global plastics crisis, the head of UN talks told negotiators from 180 countries gathered in Geneva on Tuesday to forge a landmark treaty on eliminating the life-threatening waste.
“We are facing a global crisis,” Ecuadoran diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso said at the start of 10 days of negotiations.
“Plastic pollution is damaging ecosystems, polluting our oceans and rivers, threatening biodiversity, harming human health, and unfairly impacting the most vulnerable,” he said.
“The urgency is real, the evidence is clear, and the responsibility is on us.”
Three years of negotiations hit the wall in Busan, South Korea in December when oil-producing states blocked a consensus.
