You might have missed it amid the noise of the Trump transition and the sound of the European and Japanese auto industries collapsing. But the failure of an obscure United Nations meeting in South Korea at the weekend is a sign of how the entire edifice of environmental diplomacy is creaking.
The meeting in the port city of Busan was intended to hammer out the text of a treaty to prevent plastic pollution, ahead of a planned summit to formalise the agreement in 2025.
It would then join existing UN conventions on biodiversity and the ozone layer - along with by far the most well-known such institution, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC.
It is common to treat these meetings as meaningless talking shops, but that is not right. We have already measurably slowed global warming and prevented millions of cancer deaths thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting chemicals. Policies enacted under the UNFCCC helped push carbon emissions about 12 per cent below the direction they were headed in 15 years ago.
As my colleague Mark Gongloff points out, these meetings would not be so contentious if they did not have real-world consequences.
A single UN member country can block the entire process, and nations that benefit from the status quo have every reason to exercise their vetoes.
Denne historien er fra December 04, 2024-utgaven av The Straits Times.
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Denne historien er fra December 04, 2024-utgaven av The Straits Times.
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CALLIGRAPHY IS BIG WITH ARTIST
The boulders hiding in the alcove of Tong Yang-tze's (right) Taipei apartment testify to this Taiwanese calligrapher's daunting perfectionism. They are paper - remnants of discarded artworks, crumpled together like used tissues and soaked into inky wads of pulp. Hundreds of old drafts of writing, including many of her efforts to draw Chinese poetry at a monumental scale, have been recycled into these rocks over the years, most recently as she worked on her commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which debuted on Nov 21.
Mattel sued over Wicked dolls with porn website link
LOS ANGELES - Mattel was sued on Dec 3 by a South Carolina mother for mistakenly putting a link to a pornographic website on packaging for dolls tied to the blockbuster movie Wicked.
Taiwanese musician-director Liu Chia-chang a composer of hit songs
Famed veteran Taiwanese musician and director Liu Chia-chang has died at the age of 81.
Actress Kristal Tin reveals lung cancer diagnosis
Former TVB actress Kristal Tin revealed on Instagram on Dec 3 that she has undergone successful surgery for lung cancer.
South Korean entertainment schedules up in the air
SEOUL - Schedules of performances and interviews in South Korea have been thrown into a state of uncertainty by a sudden martial law declaration that was lifted only a few hours later.
Host Dasmond Koh surprised by martial law edict while in Seoul for work
Upheaval in Seoul, South Korea
Squid Game returns to end 2024 with a bang
In this monthly column, The Straits Times' streaming picks for December include the long-awaited second season of the survivalist hit Squid Game (2021 to present) and its non-lethal equivalent.
Flow speaks Volumes, The Room Next Door a thin melodrama
In the wake of a devastating flood, a cat finds refuge with motley stranded animals on a tattered sailboat.
Funeral rites come alive in The Last Dance
The Hong Kong drama offers fascinating glimpses into the city's funeral traditions
Tolkien and anime work well together, says Japanese director
NEW YORK - It has been a decade since the work of fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien last appeared on the big screen.