Not-so-fantastic plastic - why the world needs a global treaty to end plastic pollution

With the clock ticking, can we agree a Global Plastics Treaty by the end of 2024?: After a strong opening to UN talks in pursuit of a Global Plastics Treaty, recent rounds of negotiation have been hindered by the efforts of fossil fuel industry lobbyists as well as by some countries keen to water it down and rein in its ambition. I... by What on Earth?

40 min listen

Will Mexico’s crackdown on illegal fishing give vaquita porpoises a fighting chance?: With only an estimated 10 individuals left, the vaquita porpoise is the world’s most endangered marine mammal, pushed to the edge of extinction by illegal fishing for the dried swim bladders of totoaba fish which are in high demand in Asia. But despi... by What on Earth?

41 min listen

EIA at 40 – ‘I've been threatened by senior government officials, shouted at and screamed at’: In the countdown to EIA’s 40th anniversary later this year, as well as sharing films and stories from our archive, we’ve also recorded a short series of new podcasts with some of the longest serving campaigners to get an insight into how the organisa... by What on Earth?

34 min listen

Oppression, sanctions and blood teak, hallmarks of Myanmar’s coup on its third anniversary: On the third anniversary of the Myanmar military seizing power, the country has effectively seen a return to the violence, plunder and human rights abuses of the former dictatorship in pursuit of control and hard currency. Despite international sanct... by What on Earth?

20 min listen

Drilling down into the detail of eco crime prosecutions on our open access Crime Tracker: More than two years ago, EIA unveiled our Environmental Crime Tracker, an open access online tool to help analyse and better understand wildlife and forest crime around the world. Recently, we expanded its capabilities even further with a new dashboa... by What on Earth?

27 min listen

Is the palm oil in so many of our products still a problem and will it ever be truly sustainable?: Palm oil is cheap, versatile and used widely in countess thousands of products and in biofuels, but its production has been linked to human rights abuses, illegal logging and deforestation, causing considerable harm to indigenous peoples and the habi... by What on Earth?

33 min listen

Why can’t we rely on technology to clean the oceans of our plastic waste?: The terrible scale of our planet’s plastic pollution crisis has been making headlines in recent years, as have a number of apparent technological solutions to the problem – but can we really rely on physical ocean clean-ups to sort out the mess for u... by What on Earth?

20 min listen

What to expect as we enter round three of talks for a Global Plastics Treaty: EIA’s Ocean campaigners were among the first to spot the rising crisis of plastic pollution and we’re proud to have helped lead the call for a new Global Plastics Treaty to tackle it. This month we’ll be in Nairobi to attend the third session of the ... by What on Earth?

22 min listen

The threatened species in traditional medicines and the big names investing in them: Illegal wildlife trade is happening on a large scale to supply the parts and products of protected species such as leopards, pangolins, rhinos and tigers to serve as ingredients in some traditional Chinese medicines. In this episode, EIA Legal and Po... by What on Earth?

25 min listen

Why are World Heritage Sites such a vital tool for saving endangered species and habitats?: In this episode, we take a look at the work of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which has just met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and discuss what happened – and what didn’t happen – at the meeting and how World Heritage Sites can be an important tool ... by What on Earth?

27 min listen

On World Rhino Day 2023, how is this magnificent species is doing versus illegal trade?: Much of the past decade has been a tough time for endangered rhinos, to judge from the recorded seizures of rhino horn being smuggled around the world – but it’s not all bad news for this threatened species … In this special episode for World Rhino D... by What on Earth?

24 min listen

Iceland has resumed its slaughter of whales, but what future does the industry have?: After spending most of the summer in port, Iceland’s last whalers have been given the green light by their Government to resume the hunting and killing of endangered fin whales. In this episode, EIA’s Senior Ocean Adviser Clare Perry and Senior Ocean... by What on Earth?

26 min listen

As negotiations for the first Global Plastics Treaty continue, what about the Big Oil lobby?: The UN Environment Assembly is in the process of negotiating a new Global Plastics Treaty, with the second phase of talks kicking off at the end of May to hammer out the detailed needed to properly address the fast-rising threat of plastics pollution... by What on Earth?

25 min listen

Cultivating Plastics – how the use of agriplastics sows the seeds of pollution in farming: The plastics used in agricultural production – commonly called agriplastics – account for only 3.5 per cent of the plastic used around the world each year, but they directly pollute the human food chain and harm the wider environment. As EIA releases... by What on Earth?

34 min listen

Methane madness – why the EU must tackle harmful emissions from its energy imports: The European Union has ambitious plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030 – but one major problem is its reluctance to address the huge amount of harmful methane released into the planet’s warming atmosphere from t... by What on Earth?

17 min listen

How we’re using artificial intelligence to help tackle the illegal trade in tigers: In partnership with the UK’s Alan Turing Institute, EIA is currently working on an ambitious project to create a database of tiger stripe patterns – as individual as human finger prints – to help identify and trace animals in the wild and in illegal ... by What on Earth?

19 min listen

What can we expect from the opening negotiations for the world’s first Global Plastics Treaty?: In March this year, the United Nations Environment Assembly agreed to forge ahead with a new Global Plastics Treaty and next week sees work start in earnest to get the detail in place to address the fast-rising threat of plastics pollution. In this e... by What on Earth?

25 min listen

CITES meetings are a big deal in the environmental calendar, but just what is it and what does it do?: One of the biggest dates in the environmental calendar is happening in November when the 19th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora – aka CITES – opens in Panama City. But jus... by What on Earth?

21 min listen

International Ozone Day - What’s next for the Montreal Protocol as it marks its 35th anniversary?: On 16 September, the United Nations marks the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer – and for EIA’s Climate team, it’s an opportunity to look back at the Montreal Protocol as it marks its 35th anniversary and to consider its role ... by What on Earth?

29 min listen

International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies - the problems with methane: Today (7 September) is the UN International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies and Climate Campaigner Kim O’Dowd talks about the dangerous impacts of methane pollution on climate change as well as on human health and what EIA is doing about it. by What on Earth?

25 min listen

Fighting for the forests - documenting a partnership forged to take on environmental crime: This episode, EIA Forests Team Leader Faith Doherty and Kaoem Telapak’s Mardi Minangsari talk with Senior Press & Communications Officer Paul Newman about the reasons for embarking on a major documentary project, the obstacles overcome and the specia... by What on Earth?

26 min listen

Ban it and keep on banning it … the high cost to elephants of restarting legal ivory trade: Last week, Zimbabwe hosted what it called an ‘Elephant Summit’ for itself and several other African nations – including Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia – with the aim of restarting the legal international trade in ivory and selli... by What on Earth?

22 min listen

Will a new national strategy to tackle environmental crime tame Nigeria’s Wild West?: In this edition, special guest Wilson Ogoke, Wildlife Policy Coordinator with the Africa Nature Investors Foundation, talks with EIA Wildlife campaigners Philip Rekret and Justin Gosling about the country’s new environmental crime strategy and how ef... by What on Earth?

31 min listen

Plastic pollution is in the air, land and seas – and now it’s been found in our blood: Billions of tonnes of plastics have been produced by human beings and it can be found polluting every corner of the planet, from the highest mountains to the deepest seas. New research has just revealed that it’s also present in human blood.In this e... by What on Earth?

22 min listen

We’re facing a grim future under runaway climate change – but we don’t have to choose it: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week published its latest report pulling together all the latest data on global warming and its impacts and it makes for particularly harrowing reading. In this edition, EIA Climate Campaigner Sophie... by What on Earth?

24 min listen

A global plastics treaty – why the world needs one and how it’s getting closer to reality: In just a few days, the United Nations Environment Assembly is due to start work on the creation of a global plastics treaty to tackle the very real planetary emergency of plastic pollution. In this edition, Christina Dixon, EIA Ocean Campaigns Deput... by What on Earth?

28 min listen

A climate for action – as the dust settles on CoP26, what’s next in the fight against climate change?: The UN CoP26 climate change summit threw an international focus on global warming and what needs to be done to mitigate its worst potential impacts – but was the conference a success or a failure? And what needs to happen next to avert catastrophe? C... by What on Earth?

28 min listen

Plastic waste: ‘A terrible and insidious threat to human and environmental health’: Following the launch of the new EIA report The Truth Behind Trash, Ocean campaigners Tom Gammage and Lauren Weir talk about the scale and impact of the problem and what EIA is doing to help address it. by What on Earth?

31 min listen

A dam too far – playing destructive power politics in the heart of a World Heritage wilderness: EIA’s Elephant Campaign Team has called for the Selous to be stripped of its World Heritage status due to the damage caused by construction of a massive hydropower project, but the World Heritage Committee stopped far short of taking such a step. Wil... by What on Earth?

19 min listen

The chilling illegal trade that’s helping to dangerously heat up the world: As another major bust of 17 tonnes of illegal HFC gases is made in Europe just days after the release of our new report Europe’s Most Chilling Crime, Climate Campaigner Sophie Geoghegan discusses the findings of our undercover investigations and loo... by What on Earth?

22 min listen

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Not-so-fantastic plastic - why the world needs a global treaty to end plastic pollution

Not-so-fantastic plastic - why the world needs a global treaty to end plastic pollution

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