BRUSSELS — Saudi Arabia: 1. The European Union and its allies: 0.
As the dust settles on last month’s failed United Nations negotiations to end plastic pollution, high-ambition countries in Europe and elsewhere are racking their brains for ways to stop Saudi Arabia from derailing the next round of talks, due later this year.
But as global consensus on environmental protection fractures — a trend likely to worsen under a Donald Trump United States presidency — it won’t be an easy task.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, was the ringleader of a group of oil-rich nations including Russia and Iran that successfully blocked efforts to limit plastic production during last month’s talks in Busan, South Korea. And there’s no reason to think they won’t try to pull the same thing this year.
