28/11/2024 (Agence Europe) – No fewer than 220 lobbyists from the chemical and fossil fuel industries have registered for the fifth and final negotiating session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on the ‘Global Plastics Treaty’ in Busan (see EUROPE 13533/18), according to the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Together, these lobbyists make up the largest delegation present in South Korea, with the host country having 140 representatives and the EU and its Member States 191. The NGO found that lobbyists outnumber the scientists’ coalition three to one and that they deployed their “pro-plastic rhetoric“ from the first days of INC-5, touting the “massive societal benefits [of] plastics” and recalling “the sovereign right to exploit resources of states”. Yet plastic production accounts for just 0.6% ($627 billion) of the global economy, according to CIEL. (FS)