03 Jul 2023 --- With virgin plastic production intrinsically linked to the fossil fuel industry, States at the Annual Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention – an agreement on access to information and environmental decision-making – flagged the need to control corporate influence in decision-making. Discussions surrounded the UN global plastics treaty to guarantee “environmental democracy.” “We need full transparency about who will be present in the negotiating room prior to the start of the negotiations. We want to see the implementation of a strong conflict of interest policy that excludes representatives from industries with a vested interest in participating in the negotiations,” David Azoulay, environmental health program director at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), tells Packaging Insights.
