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The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Total infiltration': How plastics industry swamped vital global treaty talks
Being surrounded and yelled at about 'misrepresenting reality' is not how serious United Nations-hosted negotiations are meant to proceed. But that is what happened to Prof Bethanie Carney Almroth during talks about a global treaty to slash plastic pollution in Ottawa, Canada. The employees of a large US chemicals company 'formed a ring' around her, she says. At another event in Ottawa, Carney Almroth was 'harassed and intimidated' by a plastic packaging representative, who barged into the room and shouted that she was fearmongering and pushing misinformation. That meeting was an official event organised by the UN. 'So I filed the harassment reports with the UN,' said Carney Almroth. 'The guy had to apologise, and then he left the meeting. He was at the next meeting.' 'That was one example when I filed an official report,' said Carney Almroth, an ecotoxicologist from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. 'But I've been harassed and intimidated lots of other times, in lots of other contexts, at off-site meetings, at side events, also at scientific conferences, via email and so on.' She has also had to take measures to avoid surveillance at the meetings. 'I have a privacy screen protector on my phone, because they will walk behind us and try to film what's on our screens and see what notes we're taking, or who we're chatting with. I would never open my computer in the middle of a room without knowing who is behind me. It's a high-vigilance, high-stress environment.' These are examples of what numerous sources say is a 'total infiltration' of the plastics treaty negotiations by vested industrial interests and corporate lobbyists. The core concern of six insiders who spoke to the Guardian was that the polluters are exerting too much power, not just within the negotiations but also within the UN Environment Programme (Unep), which oversees the negotiations. One source said they were 'horrified' by the industry's influence on policy and the sidelining of real solutions to plastic pollution, calling it 'corporate capture'. The plastics treaty negotiations resume in August in Geneva, Switzerland, having failed to reach agreement at the fifth round of talks in December. At stake is whether the torrent of toxic plastic pollution pouring into the environment can be stemmed. Doing so is not only vital to protect people and the planet but also to curb the climate crisis and the massive global losses of wildlife. But a flood of industry lobbyists and organisations have joined the talks, far outnumbering national delegations and scientists. They assist a group of petrostates, led by Saudi Arabia, in blocking the progress that many nations want, and are part of a wider 'petrochemical bloc' that a recent study says 'is driving up plastics production, externalising the costs of pollution, distorting scientific knowledge, and lobbying to derail negotiations'. The scale of the plastic problem is staggering. About 450m tonnes of new plastic is produced every year and production is set to triple by 2060 under current growth rates, damaging every aspect of a safe environment. Almost all plastic is made from fossil oil and gas, and emissions from its production drive the climate crisis. Plastic and the toxic chemicals it contains also damage soils, ecosystems and human health, having pervaded the entire world from the top of Mount Everest to the deepest part of the ocean, from human brains to human breast milk. The plastics treaty is being negotiated between the world's nations, under the auspices of Unep. The negotiations began in 2022, and the talks in Geneva next month will be its sixth major meeting. But since the beginning, the talks have been dogged by a fundamental disagreement. More than 100 nations, backed by more than 1,100 scientists, say a cap on the soaring production of plastic is essential to reduce all the harms they cause. Petrostates and plastic manufacturers reject this and say the focus should be on better managing and recycling of waste. Global climate action to cut carbon emissions is also putting fossil fuel states under pressure to increase other uses for their oil and gas. 'The amount of plastic that we're already producing today is entirely unmanageable,' said David Azoulay, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (Ciel), who has attended the negotiations. 'There's no way, technically or policy wise, that we can manage it. But the companies' objective is to produce more and miraculously somehow reduce the overall impact.' The expensive recycling technologies proposed by producers are 'magical thinking', he said. Only 9% of plastic is recycled, according to a 2022 OECD report. Azoulay said fossil fuel states and industry do have to be part of the negotiations, but that the process fails to take account of their vested interests. 'The fact that there is a major group of business and industry is not problematic, as they are stakeholders. But the fact they're given, at a minimum, equal standing and equal access to the processes as those of victims of the problem that they're creating, that is a problem.' He added: 'There is a problematic underlying approach in how Unep operates, which is to consider that the people who created the problems, benefited from the problem, have lied about the problem and their responsibility about it for years and decades, are trustworthy partners to solve those problems.' While the negotiating countries will decide the outcome of the treaty talks, Unep is the host and its executive director, Inger Andersen, has a critical and influential guiding role. She has not been spared from criticism. Andersen was accused of an 'inappropriate absence of ambition' by more than 100 environmental organisations in April 2023. They also expressed concern about a 'lack of transparency regarding who is advising [her] work and the [treaty] secretariat', which is the group of Unep officials who manage the talks. She was criticised in particular for a statement perceived to undermine the importance of a cap on plastic production, made in September 2024: 'We have to have a more refined conversation than just cap [or] no cap, because it's not an intelligent conversation.' A reduction in production should focus on raw polymer for single use, short-lived products, not 'car parts and plane wings', she said. Critics said her statement contradicted scientific evidence that the environmental impact of plastics begins with extraction and production, not just their use. The environmental organisations complained to Andersen's boss, the UN's secretary general, António Guterres, in October 2024, saying they had 'deep concerns' that her public statements would 'narrow the scope' of the treaty and that she had exceeded her role as convener of the negotiations. They did not receive a reply. It was also alleged at the most recent negotiating round, in Busan, South Korea, in December, that Andersen had put pressure on high-ambition countries to give way on their demands for a strong treaty with a cap on plastic production. Andersen responded at the time, saying: 'I will meet with everyone at every stage of the way and I will obviously meet the member states and hear them out, from [across] the entire spectrum of the 193 [countries].' In her convening role, Andersen can do only so much to encourage nations to reach a deal. All the countries have to reach a consensus, but one nation in particular stands out as a block to an effective plastics treaty: Saudi Arabia, the world's second biggest oil producer. Via its oil company Saudi Aramco, it owns Sabic, one of the world's biggest producers of plastic. The country has played an increasing role in the plastics treaty negotiations and was described by Politico as the 'ringleader' of a small group of oil-rich countries, including Russia and Iran, that blocked proposals for production caps in December. It has also developed a close relationship with Unep in recent years. Andersen made an official visit to Saudi Arabia in January 2024, met Saudi ministers at the UN summit on desertification which was hosted in Riyadh in December 2024 and sought a further ministerial meeting at Davos in 2025 to discuss 'strengthening of cooperation'. She was in Riyadh again on 29 June, signing a cooperation agreement on emissions reductions. The country paid Unep $1m to host World Environment Day in 2024, a similar sum paid by previous host nations, and gave the UN agency donations of more than $20m between 2020 and 2024. Some of that was contributions to Unep's environment fund and covered arrears dating back to 2021. Many countries give money to Unep, which relies on these voluntary contributions for 95% of its income. Most of the rest was instalments from a $25m deal struck in 2019 for Unep to provide expertise in strengthening Saudi Arabia's environmental protections. After the deal, the head of Unep's Saudi Arabia office wrote a report which the Guardian has been told expressed concerns about the governance of the money. Unep refused to share the report with the Guardian, saying it was a standard handover report by an official leaving his post and was confidential. In response to the criticisms of Andersen and the plastic treaty talks, a Unep spokesperson told the Guardian: 'Unep's sole focus is on supporting all countries to deliver an impactful treaty that will finally end plastic pollution. Unep continues to facilitate the participation of all relevant stakeholders in the process so we can end plastic pollution for everyone, everywhere.' Inside the plastics treaty negotiations, an official from Saudi Arabia's ministry of energy was elected in November 2024 to the 10-person bureau of national representatives that run the treaty talks. Azoulay said Saudi Arabia and its allies were undermining the plastics treaty talks. 'We're seeing complete bad faith negotiation. The obstruction [by Saudi Arabia] takes many forms, using their 35 years of experience in derailing climate negotiations, using every procedural tool to prevent progress, and using their vast financial resources to strong-arm and try to influence other countries,' he said. The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment. While the petrostate delegations are power players in the meeting rooms and corridors of the treaty negotiations, one group outnumbers every nation: plastic industry lobbyists. At the December talks in Busan there were a record 220 corporate lobbyists in attendance. That was far more than even the host nation's delegation of 140 and was three times the number of independent scientists. Dow and ExxonMobil sent nine lobbyists between them, according to an analysis by the environmental law group Ciel. Some lobbyists were included in country delegations, rather than with observer organisations, giving them access to sensitive member-state-only sessions, Ciel said. 'The overwhelming presence of industry lobbyists skews the treaty's direction,' a document being circulated among concerned treaty observers and sent to the Guardian says. 'This imbalance sidelines scientific evidence in favour of corporate agendas, undermining the treaty's potential effectiveness.' This warning is not new. Another letter from environmental organisations to Andersen in April 2024 said the lack of a conflict of interest policy enabled industry access to decision-makers. 'The participation of businesses from the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors poses a severe threat to the objectives of the treaty,' the letter said. A Unep spokesperson said it was for the negotiating countries themselves to establish a conflict of interest policy, but they had chosen not to do so. In reference to the harassment of Prof Carney Almroth in Ottawa, the spokesperson said a UN code of conduct to prevent such behaviour strictly applied to all plastics treaty meetings. Another lever of influence being pulled by corporate interests is via the system through which Unep gives full access to the negotiations to civil society sectors including women, farmers, Indigenous peoples, children and scientists. The membership of one group has soared recently: business and industry. More than 30 plastic and chemical industry lobby organisations have joined the negotiations since the start of 2023, almost doubling the total number. These include the US Plastics Industry Association, Plastics Europe and national plastic industry groups from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia and Korea. The group is co-chaired by a Saudi official. The problem, say critics, is that industry players have deep pockets and clear financial interests. 'Lobbying should be called lobbying. It shouldn't be called 'society observers',' said one source close to the negotiations. A report by InfluenceMap in November 2024 found that plastic and fossil fuel industry groups, including ExxonMobil, Sabic, PlasticsEurope and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, 'strongly advocated to weaken the ambition of the plastics treaty'. In contrast, the report said: 'The consumer goods and retail sectors have strongly supported an ambitious, science-aligned treaty, but [the plastic and fossil fuel sector] at present seems to have the upper hand.' Hotel and flight costs make the treaty negotiations expensive to attend, which is why rich industrial interests can flood the talks with lobbyists while smaller countries, scientists and NGOs struggle to find the funds, said Carney Almroth. 'The lobbyists have much more power and much more access,' she said. 'They have the economic power to get into rooms I can't get into. They can speak directly to ministers in ways that I cannot.' Carney Almroth says she is fortunate to be in position to speak out, with a permanent post at a supportive university in Sweden, a safe country where intimidatory lawsuits that have targeted some scientists are difficult for companies to pursue. Many other plastics researchers are afraid to let their voices be heard, she said, fearing legal challenges, loss of funding or career damage. 'It's the tobacco playbook: challenge the science, challenge the messenger, try to silence people, try to undermine people's credibility.' One business group is particularly influential: the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, whose members include significant plastic, chemical and fossil fuel companies such as Sabic, BASF, BP, Chevron, DuPont, Dow, LyondellBasell and Shell. WBCSD has provided successive co-chairs to the business and industry group. In a statement, the WBCSD said it followed UN rules of procedure, saying: 'We support the global ambition to reduce plastic production and use [and] we believe stakeholder participation – including businesses, civil society, academia, and others – is critical to achieving a durable and effective agreement. 'Representing companies across industries and throughout the plastics value chain – from raw material producers through to consumer brands and waste management – we engaged as an organization well positioned to share a wealth of private sector knowledge, and expertise and support the process into practical action.' Scientific experts, also keen to share their wealth of knowledge, say they have struggled to keep up with correcting wrong or misleading statements made by industry groups during the talks. There is no official scientific advisory panel for the treaty. Instead, the self-organised Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty (Scept) has attempted to fill the gap. It has 450 members, none funded by industry, and advises the smaller nations plagued by plastic who cannot afford to send scores of delegates to the negotiations. However, in February 2025, Scept wrote to the bureau running the talks and Unep's Andersen to complain about a lack of access to meetings during the December negotiating round. 'Consequently, our ability to follow the negotiations was severely limited,' the scientists said. 'We were unable to identify the knowledge gaps, misunderstandings or misinformation that require clarification, often spread by actors with conflicts of interest.' Scientists also said their criticisms of a significant 2023 Unep report on 'how the world can end plastic pollution' were ignored. The scientists said the report failed to reflect the whole range of health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution and was over-optimistic about technical solutions to deal with waste plastic. Scept experts had been invited to participate before the report's publication and provided more than 300 comments. Unep said a 'technical issue' meant an email containing Scept's comments was not received in time for publication. It said it had taken feedback from other experts and denied the report underplayed the impacts of plastic. Some countries are gearing up for a fight at the next round of negotiations in Geneva in August. Ninety-five nations issued a 'wakeup call for an ambitious plastics treaty' on 10 June at the UN Ocean Conference. 'Mountains of plastic [are] suffocating our ecosystem, poisoning food chains and threatening our children's future,' said France's environment minister. 'This is a pivotal moment. We will not give up.' But Carney Almroth is uncertain about success. 'Who knows? We're planning and strategising for our scientists now and how we're going to communicate our messages. But I think we can expect chaos and fireworks.' She recalled another incident of harassment at one of the plastics negotiations. A man from the plastics industry, who was not on the guest list, started harassing and shouting at students who were checking people in. 'He was leaning over them, angry – it was bad, bad behaviour.' 'Everyone I've ever been yelled at by is a white man from the global north – every single time. It's a power dynamic,' she said. 'But I don't cower. I don't shrink away. And I don't raise my voice. I respond with references and facts and numbers. I'm also quite tall and when I go to the meetings, I wear heels and I'm taller than most of them. It's petty, but it's a game. 'I like to think that we are impacting in a positive way, to bring more evidence-based decision making in ways that can help us find solutions that are truly more protective of people and the environment.' You can contact Damian Carrington via email, Signal (dpcarrington.35) or securely via this link.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists make concerning discovering about hidden dangers lurking in recycling bins: 'This is the main obstacle'
Scientists make concerning discovering about hidden dangers lurking in recycling bins: 'This is the main obstacle' Recycling is a core defense against plastic pollution, but that does not mean it is a perfect solution. In fact, a team led by researchers from the University of Gothenburg found some real concerns lurking within recycled plastics. Addressing them is crucial to fulfill the potential of recycling, according to the school's press release. What's happening? To understand global plastic waste better, the scientists collected samples of recycled polyethylene plastic from various parts of the world. They let them soak in water for two days, and when they analyzed the water afterward, they found over 80 different chemicals leached from the plastic. Some were expected ingredients, but others were not supposed to be there, like pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other toxic substances. These harmful compounds are often added to plastic but are not declared. Some may have also tainted the plastic during its life before it was recycled, the press release explained. Sounds nasty? Unfortunately, there's more. The aim of the new study was to explore the consequences of ingesting all of those chemicals on living organisms. The researchers put zebrafish larvae in the contaminated water for five days. That brief exposure was all it took to disrupt the organisms' hormones and metabolism, per the university. "This is the main obstacle with the idea of recycling plastic," Bethanie Carney Almroth, professor at the University of Gothenburg and project lead, said in a statement. "We never have full knowledge of what chemicals will end up in an item." Why is contaminated recycling important? The prevalence of plastic products in everyday human life was already a concern. Prior research shows that as they slowly break down, they wind up in the environment and our bodies, where they pose serious health risks. The research team's findings offer more evidence of why this plastic is so dangerous, even after it has been recycled. Much like the zebrafish in the study, exposure to the toxic chemicals they found also poses risks to humans' hormones, reproductive health, and metabolism, per the press release. "This work clearly demonstrates the need to address toxic chemicals in plastics materials and products, across their life cycle," Almroth affirmed in the statement. Do you worry about having toxic forever chemicals in your home? Majorly Sometimes Not really I don't know enough about them Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. What's being done to clean up plastic recycling? A global plastics treaty is in the works as a result of United Nations efforts. The presence of toxic chemicals in plastics and the lack of transparency in production lines are priorities in the negotiations. However, you do not need to wait for regulators and politicians to start minimizing your plastic use. Making easy switches from single-use products to reusable ones can save money and help you avoid some of the scary things that end up hiding in plastics. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Solve the daily Crossword
Time of India
17-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
In a 1st, NCPOR sends team to study ocean data in Greenland
Panaji: As part of its strategy to expand its research in the Arctic region, the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) dispatched a research team to Greenland. The NCPOR's expedition is driven by the rapid warming of the Arctic, which will have a huge impact on India's monsoon patterns and the economic security of the country due to sea level rise. A nine-member team of Indian researchers will depart on Friday for Reykjavik, Iceland's capital, where they will embark on the RV Skagerak, a 49m-long research vessel owned by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The team will start the expedition on July 21 from Iceland and conclude the research on Aug 7. 'Till now, we have been working on land and fjords in the Arctic. As the Arctic is warming three times higher than the global average, the Arctic Ocean is experiencing consequences like potential disruption of major oceanic circulations and melting of its vast sea ice,' said NCPOR director Thamban Meloth. India and its relationship to the Arctic date back to Feb 1920, when it signed the Svalbard Treaty in Paris. The NCPOR researchers have been observing Arctic glaciers for their mass balance in order to compare them with Himalayan glaciers. India's association with the Arctic is a part of the interlinked polar programme consisting of activities in the Arctic, Antarctic and Himalayas, regions where the NCPOR is conducting extensive research. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like An engineer reveals: One simple trick to get internet without a subscription Techno Mag Learn More Undo 'It is a completely new expansion. We have never done something like this before. Our first dedicated expedition to the Arctic will be focused on the East Greenland Sea, situated between Iceland and Greenland, which will provide oceanographic data and samples on the impact of ongoing warming in this region,' said Meloth. The major currents from the Greenland Sea flow into the North Atlantic Ocean. 'The ice around Greenland is melting heavily these days and fresh water is entering the ocean, and there are large changes that they are seeing. We are focusing on specialised measurements and if the team finds something interesting, then we will continue to conduct expeditions in these waters,' said the NCPOR director. The NCPOR lacks an ice-class research vessel, which is why it approached the University of Gothenburg for this expedition. The Vasco-based research institute is already working on a proposal to purchase a dedicated, ice-class research ship.
Business Wire
16-07-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
Prima Mente Launches Pleiades, a Large-Scale Human Whole-Epigenome Foundation Model with Clinical Applications for Alzheimer's Disease
LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Prima Mente today announced the launch of Pleiades, a family of large-scale foundation models created to understand the epigenomic and molecular landscape of human disease. Pleiades represents generative transformers (90M, 600M, and 7B parameters) trained on 1.9 trillion tokens at single-nucleotide resolution. The work is introduced in a newly released preprint, authored in collaboration with researchers from University of Oxford, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and University of Gothenburg. Trained on a methylation atlas of human cell types as well as cell-free DNA (cfDNA), Pleiades represents a new era in Alzheimer's research and translational medicine – offering the ability to detect disease-relevant signals from blood with unprecedented resolution across cellular subtypes, identify molecular profiles for experimental design, and reveal targets for early intervention. 'We believe epigenetics and cfDNA offer one of the most powerful, underutilized entry points into understanding the brain,' said Ravi Solanki, CEO of Prima Mente. 'They give us a non-invasive lens into cellular activity and dysfunction – particularly in neurodegeneration – at a resolution that was unimaginable just a few years ago. With Pleiades, we're building the AI infrastructure to translate that signal into meaningful discovery, diagnosis, and eventually, intervention.' In contrast to traditional models, Pleiades uses a large-scale transformer-based architecture to learn directly from raw sequencing data. It predicts the cell type of origin of cfDNA fragments, uncovers tissue and disease-specific methylation patterns, and generates synthetic cfDNA to power in silico experimentation. Critically, the team demonstrated that model performance scales reliably with data and compute, extending AI's scaling laws seen in large language and vision models to biology and laying the foundation for future multiomic modeling. The model has so far been applied to a variety of biological tasks, including tissue classification, disease detection, and fragment reconstruction, allowing it to generalize across tissues and diseases while learning shared representations of molecular function. In early Alzheimer's work, Pleiades has shown the ability to detect neuron- and microglia-, and T cell-derived cfDNA signatures that signal neurodegeneration before clinical symptoms appear. 'Pleiades represents an important step forward in how we study Alzheimer's disease using blood-based biomarkers,' said Professor Henrik Zetterberg, a leading researcher in neurodegeneration at the University of Gothenburg. 'Understanding the cell type origin and regulatory disruption at this level could enable earlier, more accurate diagnosis and reveal new biological pathways for intervention. I was thrilled to see the performance of the approach alongside the protein-based biomarkers—so much exciting research can be done and the technology really opens for personalized medicine approaches finding neurodegenerative disease subtypes with varying disease drivers.' Prima Mente has partnered with NVIDIA to scale training across DGX infrastructure, ensuring high-performance compute can be directed toward decoding the biology of complex disease. Additionally, to train and test Pleiades, Prima Mente worked with Nebius, Siam AI, and Eternis Labs for distributed compute infrastructure. The teams will continue to collaborate together on data collection and future training initiatives. Pleiades caps a period of strong momentum for Prima Mente. Alongside the model's release, the company built a wet lab for high-throughput multiomic data generation and has begun modeling disease progression across regulatory, transcriptomic, and proteomic layers. The company is launching a 1,000-patient Alzheimer's study next month and is actively building partnerships across AI, academia, and life sciences to translate these models into tools for discovery, diagnosis, and ultimately, intervention. About Prima Mente Prima Mente is based in San Francisco and London. Its mission is to build intelligent infrastructure to deeply understand the brain, protect it from neurological disease, and enhance it in health.
Jordan News
07-07-2025
- Health
- Jordan News
Study: Eating Broccoli Can Protect Against Diabetes - Jordan News
Study: Eating Broccoli Can Protect Against Diabetes Managing blood sugar levels is crucial for both preventing and effectively managing diabetes, especially among those already at risk. While medications and lifestyle modifications are key, research now shows that adding a specific vegetable to your diet may naturally improve blood sugar regulation—even in those with prediabetes. اضافة اعلان According to a new study published in Nature Microbiology and conducted by researchers at the University of Gothenburg, consuming broccoli has been linked to improved blood sugar levels in individuals with prediabetes—a condition that precedes type 2 diabetes. Broccoli and Blood Sugar Control The key compound responsible for this benefit is sulforaphane, a naturally occurring substance found in broccoli. Previous research in 2017 had already suggested that high doses of sulforaphane extracted from broccoli sprouts led to significant blood sugar reductions in diabetic patients. This new study aimed to evaluate sulforaphane's effect on people with prediabetes, a condition caused by a gradual rise in blood sugar due to impaired insulin production. Study Details Participants: 89 individuals aged between 35 and 75 with elevated fasting blood glucose levels. Profile: All participants were either overweight or obese. Design: Participants were randomly assigned to receive either sulforaphane supplements or a placebo for 12 weeks. Notable Findings Participants who consumed sulforaphane showed a significantly greater reduction in fasting blood sugar compared to those in the placebo group. Those who experienced the most improvement tended to have: Early signs of age-related mild diabetes A lower BMI Lower insulin resistance Fewer signs of fatty liver disease Reduced insulin secretion A Step Toward Personalized Treatment Prediabetes affects millions globally, yet often goes undiagnosed, leading to missed opportunities for early intervention. The researchers emphasized the importance of early, individualized intervention to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Although no definitive treatment exists for prediabetes, this study suggests that sulforaphane—especially when derived from broccoli—could serve as a functional food in a more precision-targeted approach to prevention. Still, lifestyle factors remain the cornerstone of prevention and management, including: Regular physical activity Healthy diet choices Sustained weight loss Researchers also noted that the interaction between gut microbiota and individual physiology may influence how well a person responds to sulforaphane, opening doors to more personalized nutrition-based therapies. Source: Times of India
