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Plastic pollution crisis deepens as UN talks collapse, leaving oceans unprotected from rising waste
- Admin UKK
- Berita
GENEVA, Aug 20 — The collapse of a sixth round of UN talks last week aimed at curbing plastic output has dimmed hopes of tackling a key source of pollution and left many advocates of restrictions pessimistic about a global deal during the Trump administration.
A three-year global push to reach a legally-binding treaty to curb plastic pollution choking the oceans and harming human health now appears adrift, participants said.
Many states and campaigners blamed the failure on oil-producers including the United States, which they said hardened long-held positions and urged others to reject caps on new plastic production that would have curbed output of polymers.
Debbra Cisneros, a negotiator for Panama, which supported a strong deal, told Reuters the United States, the world’s number two plastics producer behind China, was less open than in previous rounds conducted under Joe Biden’s administration.
“This time they were just not wanting anything. So it was hard, because we always had them against us in each of the important provisions,” she said at the end of the 11-day talks.
Anti-plastic campaigners saw little hope for a change in Washington’s position under President Donald Trump, who in February signed an executive order encouraging consumers to buy plastic drinking straws.
“The mentality is different, and they want to extract more oil and gas out of the ground,” said Bjorn Beeler, International Coordinator at International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of over 600 public interest NGOs.
The US State Department said in a statement that the US delegation pushed for “common-sense and pragmatic approaches” during negotiations to reduce plastic pollution while also protecting American industries that rely on plastic.
“We did not support prescriptive top-down regulatory approaches that will stifle innovation and drive consumer inflation across the US economy and all over the world,” it said.
US delegate John Thompson declined to respond to questions from a Reuters reporter on the outcome.
A State Department spokesperson previously said that each party should take measures according to its national context, while Washington has expressed concerns that the new rules could increase the costs of all plastic products. The Trump administration has also rolled back various US climate and environmental policies that it says place too many burdens on national industry.
Earlier this week, Washington also flexed its muscle in talks about another global environmental agreement when it threatened measures against states backing a proposal aimed at reducing shipping emissions.
For a coalition of some 100 countries seeking an ambitious deal in Geneva, plastic production limits are essential.
Fiji’s delegate Sivendra Michael likened excluding this provision to “mopping the floor without turning off the tap.”
For each month of delays, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said nearly a million tons of plastic waste accumulates – some of which washes up on the beaches of island states.
‘Consensus is dead’
Some participants also blamed organisers, the International Negotiating Committee (INC), a UN-established body supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
A low point was a formal meeting an hour before the negotiations were set to conclude at midnight on Thursday which lasted less than a minute and was then adjourned until dawn, prompting laughter and jeering from delegates.
“Everyone was in shock as no one understood,” said Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director for environmental group GAIA. “It’s almost like they were playing with small children.”
France’s ecology minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher called proceedings “chaotic.”
Asked what went wrong, INC chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso blamed the rift between countries and called the negotiations complex. “But we have advanced and that’s important,” he said.
UN provisional rules require all states to agree – a constraint that some see as unworkable, especially under a US administration that is retreating from multilateralism.
“Consensus is dead. You cannot agree a deal where all the countries who produce and export plastics and oil can decide the terms of what the deal is going to be,” said IPEN’s Beeler.
Some delegates and campaigners suggested introducing voting to break the deadlock or even for the UN-led process to be abandoned altogether. The WWF and others called on ambitious states to pursue a separate deal, with the hope of getting plastics-producing nations onboard later.
Two draft deals emerged from the talks – one more ambitious than the other. Neither was adopted. It is unclear when the next meeting will take place, with states merely agreeing to reconvene at a later date.
One positive development was that top plastics producer China publicly acknowledged the need to address the full-life cycle of plastics, said David Azoulay, Managing Attorney of the Center for International Environmental Law’s Geneva Office. “This is new, and I think this opens an interesting door.” — Reuters
JAKARTA (Reuters) -Firefighters in Indonesia are struggling to contain a three-day-old fire at an illegal oil well that has killed at least three people and injured two others, a disaster relief official said on Tuesday.
Some 750 people have been evacuated from the densely populated areas around the site, located in Central Java province's Blora region, Agung Tri, a member of the provincial disaster mitigation agency's rapid response team, told Reuters.
The oil well was being operated without a permit by local residents when it caught fire on Sunday.
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the blaze, but residents living near the well said they heard an explosion before the fire broke out, Agung said.
The relief agency has deployed four excavators in an attempt to use soil to extinguish the fire, he added, but firefighters were still battling massive flames on Tuesday and facing difficulties moving equipment into the hilly terrain surrounding the site.
Evacuated residents have, meanwhile, been moved to temporary shelters and local government buildings nearby.
Local communities in the mineral-rich Indonesian archipelago have taken over hundreds of oil wells abandoned by companies after they proved to no longer be economically viable.
Many are illegally operated with lax safety standards.
Indonesian authorities have recently moved to legalise those operations, issuing a regulation in June that allows small companies to partner with residents. The policy is intended to boost the country's oil production while improving safety standards and protecting the welfare of communities.
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia; Editing by Gibran Peshimam and Joe Bavier)
AUGUST 19 — Malaysia’s National Agrofood Policy (NAP) 2021–2030 promises a bold vision: self-sufficiency, high-tech farms, and a circular economy driving sustainability. Yet behind the glossy blueprint lies a harsh reality — decades of underinvestment, fragmented governance, and climate vulnerability threaten to rot this ambition before it ripens. Embracing circularity isn’t just eco-friendly jargon; it’s a survival strategy. But without confronting core challenges, Malaysia risks sowing seeds of failure. The core challenges involve more than just poor soil.
One concerns what is referred to as the smallholder squeeze. Eighty per cent of farmers work plots under one hectare, trapped in low-tech, low-yield cycles. There are circular barriers. No capital for biogas digesters or compost systems. No scale to reuse waste streams. To achieve that remedial leap calls for collectivise innovation. State-backed "circular hubs" could lease tech (e.g., shared composting facilities, solar dryers) and broker crop waste-to-feed deals between farms.
Import addiction remains a big worry. An estimated RM80 billion/year in food imports (2022), including 60 oer cent of vegetables are a concern. So much so that climate disruptions abroad can equal empty shelves at home. There is a circular disconnect. While NAP touts "closed-loop" farms, we lack systems to redirect urban food waste (17,000 tonnes/day) into animal feed or fertiliser. In terms of solution, the suggestion is to mandate commercial food waste segregation for processing into agricultural inputs. Incentivize factories to use rice husks, palm biomass, or spent grain. But from the engagement with NAP people at the ministry, achieving economy of scale remains the biggest challenge.
The droughts in Kedah, floods in Johor — 2023’s extremes, slashed rice yields by 40 per cent. Circular urgency includes water recycling, drought-resistant crops, and soil carbon capture. They are non-negotiable. Yet adoption is glacial. As a remedy, it is suggested to tie subsidies to circular metrics. Pay farmers for verified water savings, compost use, or methane capture — not just yield.
There is evidence of policy fragmentation. MAFS (Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security) promotes circular farms; Miti handles green tech; state governments control land/water. But palm oil mills burn waste while vegetable farms buy chemical fertiliser. One suggestion is to create a circular agrofood task force with cross-ministerial teeth. Audit waste flows (palm, rice, livestock) and map industrial symbiosis zones.
The circular remedies call to move from theory to practice. Waste is the new "Crop". The problem is 80 per cent of palm biomass is underused; 70 per cent of municipal waste is organic. The obvious solution is to scale community biohubs to process farm/food waste into inputs. Example: Sarawak’s "waste-to-wealth" parks turning sago waste into feed. There is also the unforgiving math of water. The problem, paddy fields consume 50 per cent of national water and leakage exceeds 35 per cent. The solution is to pay farmers to adopt closed-loop irrigation and rainwater harvesting. And pilot solar-powered desalination for coastal farms.
Technology justice for smallholders must be addressed. The problem is precision agtech (IoT sensors, AI) is priced for plantations, not small farms. One solution is to make Government-as-anchor-tenant. Then lease tech to cooperatives; use procurement contracts (e.g., for circular-certified rice) to de-risk adoption. Need to bridge the urban-rural circular gap. The problem is that cities discard nutrients; farms buy synthetics. One suggested solution is to create metro "Food Waste Rail": Dedicated transport to divert urban organics to rural compost plants. And give tax breaks for retailers donating unsold produce.
Circularity isn’t optional — it’s survival. Malaysia’s agrofood plan needs more than slogans. It demands a wartime mentality: coordinate across silos, redirect subsidies, and treat waste as strategic. The Netherlands — a tiny nation feeding the world — powers half its greenhouses with agricultural waste. Brazil turns crop residues into bioelectricity. We have the biomass. We have the need. What’s missing? Political courage to phase out leaky, linear subsidies. Urgent capital is needed for circular infrastructure (not just drones). Treat farmers as partners, not recipients. Without this, the NAP’s circular vision will starve on the vine.
But if we act — linking palm waste to rice paddies, cities to villages, data to dirt — we won’t just secure food. We’ll build an agriculture that heals, not harms. The time for pilot projects is over. The hunger clock is ticking. A circular farm isn’t zero-waste — it’s zero-wasted opportunity.
* The author is affiliated with the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy Studies at UCSI University and is an associate fellow at the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
PUTRAJAYA: The Urban Renewal Bill will be tabled for its first reading in the Dewan Rakyat this Thursday, marking a significant step in Malaysia’s urban development plans.
Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming confirmed the second and third readings are scheduled for 27 August, setting a new direction for sustainable and inclusive urban growth.
“I think the time has come, because next year the country will celebrate 70 years of independence, we need a new act to revive old cities,” he said during a press conference after the KPKT Budget 2026 engagement session.
The ministry conducted 101 engagement sessions with stakeholders, including developers, NGOs, and parliamentary committees, making it the most extensive consultation in its history.
Nga emphasised that the bill is crucial for revitalising ageing towns and aligning with Malaysia’s sustainable development goals under the MADANI Economy framework.
Regarding funding, he stated that allocations would be channelled to local authorities to ensure effective implementation of urban renewal projects.
Affordable housing reforms will also be prioritised in Budget 2026, with new technologies introduced to reduce costs while maintaining quality.
“The ceiling price of urban affordable houses is currently set at RM300,000, but our focus is on increasing household income to improve homeownership,” Nga added.
The engagement session gathered 330 stakeholders to discuss housing, waste management, disaster preparedness, and local government services. – Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: Cadangan sambungan Projek Laluan Rel Pantai Timur (ECRL) ke Rantau Panjang, Kelantan akan dibincangkan dalam mesyuarat Kabinet tidak lama lagi.
Menteri Pengangkutan Anthony Loke Siew Fook berkata projek tersebut masih dalam fasa pembinaan dan perlu dibincangkan semula dengan pihak China.
“Jajaran ke Rantau Panjang adalah sebahagian daripada pakej ECRL, tetapi ia memerlukan perbincangan dengan China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC),“ katanya.
Beliau menjawab soalan tambahan Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (PN-Pasir Mas) mengenai jaminan kerajaan untuk meneruskan projek tersebut.
Kajian teknikal termasuk risiko banjir belum dilaksanakan kerana kajian kebolehlaksanaan perlu disiapkan terlebih dahulu.
Loke menegaskan bahawa kos projek ECRL tinggi kerana kebanyakan jajaran dibina secara elevated untuk mengelak banjir.
“Di Rantau Panjang, terdapat isu teknikal kerana jenis landasan ECRL dan State Railway of Thailand (SRT) berbeza,“ jelasnya.
Kawasan yard diperlukan untuk membolehkan integrasi dengan SRT bagi memudahkan pemindahan kargo.
Kementerian sedang menyediakan Memorandum Persefahaman (MoU) Cross Border Transport dengan Thailand bagi memudahkan pergerakan rel rentas sempadan.
“Kami ingin pastikan sambungan ini memberi manfaat jangka panjang dan menggerakkan ekonomi sempadan,“ kata Loke.
Dua perkara utama perlu diselesaikan sebelum kajian kebolehlaksanaan dilaksanakan.
Pertama, kesediaan kerajaan Thailand untuk menyokong sambungan ini termasuk infrastruktur di bahagian mereka.
Kedua, sama ada sambungan perlu menggunakan infrastruktur ECRL atau KTMB (Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad).
Kementerian akan terus berunding dengan Thailand bagi menentukan model kerjasama terbaik. - Bernama