Despite heavy sanctions, Russia’s war machine is still fuelled by the revenues from their oil and gas, which are the raw materials required to manufacture plastic products. While countries like the UK are no longer direct consumers, loopholes continue to allow products made from Russian oil to infiltrate the global market. Despite a drop in exports to Europe, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that in 2024, total export revenues fell by only 5 perce

Delegations once again gathered in Nairobi this July to resume negotiations on the formation of a global plastics treaty, amid continuing disagreements on what is to be included. While some delegates reported “incredibly positive” engagement from this latest round of negotiations, several nations continue to push the proposal of a waste-only treaty, overlooking the compounding issues surrounding plastics such as chemicals and new plastics production. The exclusion of such iss

98% of plastic is made from natural organic materials like oil and gas. Ranking in the top three global producers of oil and natural gas. In the context of Russia’s war on Ukraine, purchasing Russian hydrocarbons to make products like plastic is inextricably linked to the funding of the Russian war economy. The question then is whether our current international regulations are effective at responding to this dual problem? Before the war, Russia’s hydrocarbon industry accounte

In 2022, UN member states passed a resolution titled ‘End Plastic Pollution’ and since then governments and corporations have been working on a number of global treaties and voluntary commitments to reduce their plastic footprints, with varying degrees of success. The Nice Ocean Action Plan The United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) is a three-yearly formal UN summit. In June 2025, the third conference, UNOC3, took place in Nice, France. This resulted in the Nice Ocean Action

Every 60 seconds the world produces staggering amounts of plastic. It is expected that we will produce a total of 766 million tonnes of plastic per year by 2040, equivalent to 75 trillion plastic bottles. Despite decades of recycling campaigns, the problem is only getting worse. A new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Bending the Curve, argues that we cannot recycle our way out of the plastic crisis and that it is imperative we reduce plastic producti