BFFP Newsletter 🌏 📰 : Members and allies across the globe call for a strong and effective plastics treaty, and other stories!

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Subject: BFFP Newsletter 🌏 📰 : Members and allies across the globe call for a strong and effective plastics treaty, and other stories!

Latest News and Updates

October 3, 2024

Energy Transfer pipeline burning near the residential community of Deer Park / La Porte, Texas, U.S. (Photo: Fenceline Watch)

Members and Allies Around the Globe Demand a Strong and Effective Plastics Treaty

Since the beginning of the INC process, civil society organizations, as well as many governments, have been calling for an open and transparent process that facilitates the widest possible public participation. Instead, observers have been met with limitations that have ranged from caps on attendance, restricted access to negotiations and relevant meetings, and curtailed opportunities to make formal statements. With possibly one last round of negotiations remaining, civil society groups renew their calls for greater transparency and participation in the process to ensure that the demands for a strong and effective plastics treaty are heard.

microplastic pollution entering the brain

Shiv Srivastava with Fenceline Watch reports live from the scene of the Energy Transfer pipeline explosion and fire near Houston, Texas, U.S. (Photo: Fenceline Watch)

Plastics Pipeline Explosion and Chemical Disaster in the U.S.

On September 16th, a pipeline carrying natural gas liquids (the building blocks for making plastics) exploded in the Deer Park area outside of Houston, Texas, burning for more than three days and likely exposing thousands of people to toxic chemicals. Fenceline Watch was on the scene providing information to local residents, even while the government and Energy Transfer (who owns the pipeline) have yet to share potentially life-saving details about which specific chemicals might have burned in the pipeline fire.

Spred the word!

Brazilian Government Must Go Beyond Speeches

In his speech on the climate issue, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recognised the challenges faced by Brazil, highlighting his government's efforts to overcome them. He said that the world is tired of unfulfilled climate agreements, the lack of action on reducing carbon emissions and the absence of financial aid for poor countries, pointing out that 2024 is on course to be the hottest year in modern history. However, Brazil has been resistant to defending the reduction of plastic production during the negotiating sessions of the Global Plastic Treaty. According to Folha de S.Paulo, this resistance has been led by the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services.

Lake Kivu plastic pollution. Photo by SOPRODE.

Whose Mess Are We Cleaning Up?

For this year’s World Clean-Up Day, GAIA Africa ran a two-week-long social media campaign in collaboration with #BreakFreeFromPlastic to expose plastic manufacturers’ pollution across the African continent. The campaign highlighted specific problematic plastic waste items found in several African countries. It called on corporations to reduce plastic production and take responsibility for the end of life of their products—a key focus among African CSOs eight priority areas towards a Globally Binding Plastics Treaty. This World Clean-up Day, we put the spotlight on plastic producers & problematic plastics challenging communities in Uganda, Ghana, The DR Congo, South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco.

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Subject: BFFP Newsletter 🌏 📰 : Members and allies across the globe call for a strong and effective plastics treaty, and other stories!