Plastic pollution talks move closer to world-first pact

Ottawa: A fourth and penultimate round of UN led negotiations to solve global plastic pollution wrapped up in Ottawa early on Tuesday with a world fir...

Ottawa: A fourth and penultimate round of UN-led negotiations to solve global plastic pollution wrapped up in Ottawa early on Tuesday with a world-first pact said to be within reach by year's end but without a cap on the production of polymers.

For the first time in the negotiations, delegates from 175 countries and observers discussed a draft of what is to become a global treaty on ending the scourge of plastics that are found everywhere from mountain tops to ocean depths, as well as within human blood and breast milk.

The current session picked up where talks in Kenya left off five months ago.

They also agreed to a series of consultations between now and November, when the final round of talks is to be held in South Korea.

The Ottawa talks saw "a massive, monumental change in the tone and in the energy" compared with the previous round, Canadian parliamentary secretary Julie Dabrusin said.