The U.S. Is Upending Plastics Treaty Talks

Current conditions: Firefighters have contained 78% of a brush fire that put tens of thousands of Los Angeles residents under evacuation order over the weekend • Tropical Storm Ivo continues its westward path away from Mexico, causing dangerous waves on the Pacific coast • Heavy rainfall canceled more than 70 flights at major airports in Japan.

THE TOP FIVE

1. U.S. threatens global plastics treaty by siding with oil states

Plastic waste floats in the Ganga River in Allahabad, India. Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images

The U.S. has joined lobbying efforts with other major oil-drilling countries to thwart a bid to set limits on production as part of the global negotiations on a plastics treaty. Representatives from Washington sent letters to a handful of nations urging them to follow the lead of the U.S., Russia, and Gulf states in opposing any production restrictions. On the other side is a coalition of nearly 100 countries, including Canada, Australia, much of Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Pacific Island countries that back provisions aimed at reducing virgin plastic production to “sustainable levels,” Climate Home News reported. “The U.S. approach now appears to be closely aligned with the countries that have been blocking progress throughout the process,” said John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA’s Oceans Campaign Director. “For the first time, the U.S. is actively throwing its weight around to push other countries to go along with them”.

The current talks in Geneva are an extension of a process that was meant to conclude in December, after five rounds of meetings. Negotiations are scheduled to be completed by August 14.

2. Orsted shares plummet on plan to save New York wind farm

Shares of Orsted fell by more than a third on Monday morning after the Danish energy giant released a $9.4 billion fundraising plan to shore up the finances of its Sunrise Wind project off the New York Coast. The world’s largest wind developer blamed the Trump administration for derailing its business model, saying it needed to raise new funds after “recent materials developments in the U.S.” made it impossible to find a buyer for a stake in the New York project, the Financial Times reported.

The Danish government controls a 50.1% stake in the company, and agreed to back the new shares the project is issuing. But as Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas noted on X, the size of the issue is nearly double what was expected.

3. Trump pushes to oust No. 2 at global energy agency

President Donald Trump is pushing to replace the No. 2 official at the Paris-based International Energy Agency. The 32-country IEA, whose reports and data shape global energy policy, has drawn the ire of Republicans in Washington by producing analyses that forecast waning fossil fuel use and project major growth of wind and solar power. Now Trump is demanding that the agency replace its No. 2 official with someone more closely aligned with this administration’s pro-fossil fuel policies, insiders told E&E News.

The move came weeks after Secretary of Energy Chris Wright threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the IEA over what he called its “unrealistic” green energy forecasts.

4. Court overrides Trump’s bid to open marine preserve to fishing

A federal judge in Hawaii blocked the Trump administration’s effort to open the Pacific Islands Heritage marine national monument to commercial fishing. The decision from the Biden-appointed judge Micah W.J. Smith overturned an April letter from the National Marine Fisheries Service proposing to allow fishing in parts of the Pacific Ocean monument designated under former President Barack Obama. “The court forcefully rejected the Trump administration’s outrageous claim that it can dismantle vital protections for the monument’s unique and vulnerable species and ecosystems without involving the public,” Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said, according to The Guardian. As a result of Friday’s ruling, the ban on commercial fishing in the area remains in effect.

5. Climate change is killing fireflies

As a kid growing up in New York, fireflies were so abundant I found them crawling on my clothes anytime I played outside on a summer evening. These days, that nightly constellation of blinking bugs is something more like an occasional shooting star as fireflies have disappeared in recent years. This summer, I started noticing them more again. I wondered if maybe I was just noticing them more because my first child was born in April, making me more reflective on my youth. But new research suggests that there was, in fact, an uptick in firefly population in the Northeastern U.S. summer after years of population decline, according to The Guardian.

But despite the good year we’re having, “researchers caution that it does not necessarily signal a reversal of the downward trend. They remain concerned about the long-term viability of the firefly family, which includes more than 2,000 species, some of which are at risk of extinction due to factors such as light pollution and climate change.”

THE KICKER

Walmart’s Chile division next month will launch Latin America’s first green-hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck. The semitrailer truck, set to be tested on Chile’s rugged roads for a year starting in September, will have an expected range of 750 kilometers and can haul 49 metric tons.