Chile’s climate summit chief to lead plastic pollution treaty talks
By AFP
February 7, 2026
Julio Cordano will lead the talks on forging a new treaty on combating plastic pollution - Copyright AFP Olivier MORIN
Robin MILLARD
Countries on Saturday elected Chile’s COP climate summit chief negotiator to drive forward stalled talks on striking a landmark global treaty tackling the scourge of plastic pollution.
Career diplomat Julio Cordano was elected by countries meeting in Geneva following a drawn-out battle.
“Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” he said after being elected. “A treaty is urgently needed.”
More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use items. The plastic pollution problem is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks and in the oceans’ deepest trench.
Supposedly final talks in South Korea in 2024 towards a treaty to address the problem ended without a deal — and a resumed effort in Geneva last August likewise collapsed.
Talks chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso then quit in October.
Some 156 countries met in Geneva on Saturday to pick a new chair from three candidates, with the process underlining how far apart different groups of countries remain.
A large bloc wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states wants to focus more narrowly on waste management.
The talks process has been taking decisions by consensus — which has proved impossible to find, with tiny island states drowning in foreign marine plastic and oil-producing countries pulling in opposite directions.
– Protracted process –
Saturday’s one-day meeting was purely to elect a new chair.
Some countries — led by Kuwait and backed by many oil-producing nations — requested a few hours to give the candidates a chance to lobby diplomats in the search for consensus.
Other countries charged that such requests were merely a bid to run down the clock; Antigua and Barbuda called it “an attempt to protract the process”.
After two hours of fruitless consultations the issue was forced to a vote.
Cordano came through two rounds of voting, defeating candidates from Senegal and Pakistan.
By AFP
February 7, 2026
Julio Cordano will lead the talks on forging a new treaty on combating plastic pollution - Copyright AFP Olivier MORIN
Robin MILLARD
Countries on Saturday elected Chile’s COP climate summit chief negotiator to drive forward stalled talks on striking a landmark global treaty tackling the scourge of plastic pollution.
Career diplomat Julio Cordano was elected by countries meeting in Geneva following a drawn-out battle.
“Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects everyone: every country, every community and every individual,” he said after being elected. “A treaty is urgently needed.”
More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use items. The plastic pollution problem is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks and in the oceans’ deepest trench.
Supposedly final talks in South Korea in 2024 towards a treaty to address the problem ended without a deal — and a resumed effort in Geneva last August likewise collapsed.
Talks chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso then quit in October.
Some 156 countries met in Geneva on Saturday to pick a new chair from three candidates, with the process underlining how far apart different groups of countries remain.
A large bloc wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states wants to focus more narrowly on waste management.
The talks process has been taking decisions by consensus — which has proved impossible to find, with tiny island states drowning in foreign marine plastic and oil-producing countries pulling in opposite directions.
– Protracted process –
Saturday’s one-day meeting was purely to elect a new chair.
Some countries — led by Kuwait and backed by many oil-producing nations — requested a few hours to give the candidates a chance to lobby diplomats in the search for consensus.
Other countries charged that such requests were merely a bid to run down the clock; Antigua and Barbuda called it “an attempt to protract the process”.
After two hours of fruitless consultations the issue was forced to a vote.
Cordano came through two rounds of voting, defeating candidates from Senegal and Pakistan.
there was “strong pressure from industry” to back chemical recycling despite doubts about its benefits.
By AFP
February 6, 2026
Under EU rules, single use plastic bottles need to contain at least 25 percent of recycled plastic -- with the share set to increase to 30 percent by 2030
By AFP
February 6, 2026
Under EU rules, single use plastic bottles need to contain at least 25 percent of recycled plastic -- with the share set to increase to 30 percent by 2030
- Copyright AFP/File Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN
European nations voted Friday to allow for chemical recycling to play a larger role in the production of plastic bottles, overcoming reservations about the energy-intensive technology.
Under EU rules, single use plastic bottles need to contain at least 25 percent of recycled plastic — with the share set to increase to 30 percent by 2030.
Currently only plastic recycled through mechanical techniques, which involve washing, shredding, and remelting the stuff, can be used towards the quota.
But representatives for the European Union’s 27 member states voted Friday to extend the same benefit to chemically recycled plastics.
The vote follows a proposal put forward by the European Commission aimed at supporting investment in the plastic recycling sector, which is struggling against competition from China and other parts of Asia.
The change “will benefit the plastics industry, they now have consistent and clarified rules to calculate, verify and report the recycled content,” said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, a spokeswoman for the European Commission.
She defined the vote as a “first milestone for defining rules for chemical recycling at EU-level.”
Brussels believes that chemical recycling can help the re-use of certain challenging types of packaging such as yoghurt pots.
But environmental groups complain that the process, which involves heating plastics to high temperatures to recycle them, is energy intensive, more polluting than mechanical techniques and could serve as a fig leaf for companies to continue produce more plastics.
Europe’s recycling sector is under severe pressure, due to abundant supply of cheap plastics as global production continues to rise.
More than half of plastics produced — 57 percent — come from Asia, with 35 percent coming from China.
European nations voted Friday to allow for chemical recycling to play a larger role in the production of plastic bottles, overcoming reservations about the energy-intensive technology.
Under EU rules, single use plastic bottles need to contain at least 25 percent of recycled plastic — with the share set to increase to 30 percent by 2030.
Currently only plastic recycled through mechanical techniques, which involve washing, shredding, and remelting the stuff, can be used towards the quota.
But representatives for the European Union’s 27 member states voted Friday to extend the same benefit to chemically recycled plastics.
The vote follows a proposal put forward by the European Commission aimed at supporting investment in the plastic recycling sector, which is struggling against competition from China and other parts of Asia.
The change “will benefit the plastics industry, they now have consistent and clarified rules to calculate, verify and report the recycled content,” said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, a spokeswoman for the European Commission.
She defined the vote as a “first milestone for defining rules for chemical recycling at EU-level.”
Brussels believes that chemical recycling can help the re-use of certain challenging types of packaging such as yoghurt pots.
But environmental groups complain that the process, which involves heating plastics to high temperatures to recycle them, is energy intensive, more polluting than mechanical techniques and could serve as a fig leaf for companies to continue produce more plastics.
Europe’s recycling sector is under severe pressure, due to abundant supply of cheap plastics as global production continues to rise.
More than half of plastics produced — 57 percent — come from Asia, with 35 percent coming from China.
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