Trump’s return jeopardizes global fight against plastic pollution

Hello and welcome to Energy Source, coming from New York, where people celebrate Thanksgiving.

Americans travel to record levels for the holidays, as lower fuel and food prices provide relief to inflation-weary consumers. Nearly 80 million people will drive at least 50 miles this Thanksgiving, an all-time high, according to the American Automobile Association. The Federal Aviation Administration is predicting the busiest travel season “in decades.”

This significant traffic comes as the weakness of the Chinese economy and the ceasefire agreement in the Middle East are driving down the price of crude. Gasoline prices averaged $3.04 on Monday, the lowest level for the holidays since 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Today’s Energy Source examines what Donald Trump’s election victory means for global efforts to combat plastic pollution. Talks between delegates from more than 170 countries are at an impasse in Busan, South Korea, with days left to negotiate the first UN treaty on plastics. Plastics, a building block of modern life, are a major driver of oil demand, with global consumption expected to nearly double by 2050.

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for reading.

Amandine

Trump victory weighs on plastics treaty negotiations at UN

Donald Trump’s election victory could jeopardize global efforts to reduce plastic production as nations meet in South Korea to negotiate the first United Nations treaty on plastic waste, according to participants and stakeholders.

Delegates from more than 170 countries gathered this week in Busan, South Korea, for the fifth and final round of negotiations aimed at concluding a global treaty similar to the Paris climate agreement to combat plastic pollution .

But Trump’s return has cast doubt on the U.S. position and whether the country, a top plastic producer, is likely to rejoin the deal under a president who previously withdrew of the Paris Agreement and which is opposed to international treaties.

“Everyone now knows that the United States will not rejoin this agreement anytime soon and that its credibility in engaging in this process is seriously compromised due to the elections,” said a European negotiator, who belongs to one of the nearly 70 member countries of the group. called for a very ambitious coalition calling for binding targets to reduce plastic production.

“(Trump’s election) creates a lot of space for countries that don’t want to see an effective treaty. . . This is clearly a setback,” they said.

Ben Cardin, outgoing Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which deliberates on international treaties, warned that U.S. collaboration on the global plastics treaty could decline under Trump.

“The president-elect has a troubling record that reflects a trend toward retirement. . . This approach threatens to weaken American industries, workers and leadership on the global stage,” Cardin told Energy Source in a statement, saying work on plastic pollution “must continue with bold national action and a strengthened global cooperation.

The treaty negotiations come as petrochemicals, the raw material for plastic, become the main driver of oil demand. The International Energy Agency has identified the petrochemical sector as the cornerstone of oil demand growth this decade, as the electrification of power and transportation reduces the thirst for crude.

Global plastic consumption is expected to reach 736 million tonnes by 2040, an increase of 70% from 2020 levels, according to OECD projections. As a result, the sector’s carbon footprint is also expected to increase, accounting for 10% of global emissions by 2050, up from 5% in 2019, according to a report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The debate over whether countries should include reductions in plastic production in the UN treaty or instead focus on recycling has blocked progress, with China and Saudi Arabia strongly opposed to the targets supply. While the United States initially opposed the production measures, the Biden administration reversed its position in August.

It is highly unlikely that the United States will officially join a treaty to reduce plastic production. Even if countries agree on a text by the end of the week, the treaty likely won’t be finalized before the arrival in January of the Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Senate, where a majority two-thirds is required for ratification.

“They would probably come all the way back,” said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services, one of America’s largest waste management companies. Michael Wilson, chief executive of Vibrantz Technologies, which produces pigments for the plastics industry, told Energy Source that “everything is more problematic if the United States doesn’t support (the treaty).”

Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused the Biden administration of trying to reach a “rushed deal” in a statement to Energy Source. “They should leave this issue to the new Trump administration, which will rightly focus on American workers and families, not the narrow partisan interests of radical climate NGOs,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, Risch and 19 other Republican senators sent a letter to the Biden administration warning that they would not support a treaty restricting plastic production.

A US State Department spokesperson said Washington’s goal “remains to complete negotiations in 2024”, in line with the UN deadline of March 2022.

“We support an effective global agreement with meaningful and achievable universal obligations across the entire life cycle of plastics, including production, consumption and waste,” they added.

Major petrochemical producers have dismissed concerns that a Trump administration could harm U.N. negotiations. “We shouldn’t just focus on a few big countries,” said Edison Terra, executive vice president of Braskem, Latin America’s largest petrochemical company.

“If you can come to a collaborative treaty that meets these fundamental principles, we think it’s a solution that will work for everyone,” said Steve Prusak, chief executive of Chevron Phillips Chemical, the petrochemical joint venture between Chevron and Phillips . 66.

The United States has a poor record of ratifying multilateral climate agreements. It is the only UN member country that has not yet ratified the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity established in 1992. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, accepted by nearly 200 countries on the eve of Trump’s first electoral victory in 2016, has not been ratified. by the United States until 2022.

“The United States is important in contributing to discussions and so on, but it is not the swing state,” said John Duncan, co-chair of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which involves more than 200 companies, including Walmart and Unilever, and supports the reduction of plastic production. “The United States does not need to be a party for the deal to work.” (Amanda Chu)

Position changes

• Former CEO of BP Bernard Looney was appointed president of Prometheus Hyperscalea US data center company, is seeking revenge for a scandal last year that cost him the oil major’s top job.

• Amber Hetzendorf left Freyra Norwegian battery company, where she served as executive vice president of its battery project. She joined Grid potential energya battery start-up, as general manager.

• Northvolt CEO and co-founder Peter Carlsson has resigned from the troubled European battery maker.

• Patrick Flintwas appointed president of Desert Metalsan Australian nickel and copper exploration company, successor Marc Stewart.

• Bolaji Osunsanya retires from Axelaa Nigerian gas and electricity company. Ogbemi Ofuya will be the new general manager.

Power Points

• Texas and ten other Republican-led states are suing BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard, alleging they conspired to reduce coal supplies to promote a “destructive” green agenda.

• ‘Production first, safety second’: Unions, workers assert Indonesia’s dominance in EV supply chain had a price.

• U.S. farmers are urging the Biden administration to crack down on increased Chinese imports of used cooking oil for biofuels, warning that these shipments are undermining rural America’s big bet on crops for green transportation.

Energy Source is written and edited by Jamie Smyth, Myles McCormick, Amanda Chu, Tom Wilson and Malcolm Moore, with support from the FT’s global team of journalists. Contact us at energy.source@ft.com and follow us on @FTEnergy. Find previous editions of the newsletter here.