{"id":9004,"date":"2020-09-01T05:28:56","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T05:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oilnewskenya.com\/?p=9004"},"modified":"2020-09-01T05:28:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T05:28:56","slug":"kenya-petrochemicals-industry-lobby-the-us-government-to-make-africa-backslide-on-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/kenya-petrochemicals-industry-lobby-the-us-government-to-make-africa-backslide-on-plastics\/","title":{"rendered":"KENYA: Petrochemicals Industry Lobby the US Government to Make Africa Backslide on Plastics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Chemistry Council has lobbied the US government during the COVID-19 pandemic to use a US-Kenya trade deal to expand the plastics industry\u2019s footprint across Africa. Documents obtained by Unearthed — Greenpeace\u2019s \u00a0investigative journalism platform — through the Freedom of Information Act separately show that the same lobby group, which counts Shell, Exxon, and Total among its members, also lobbied against changes to the international Basel Convention, which put new limits on plastic waste entering low and middle income countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrica is at the forefront of the war on plastics, with 34 out of 54 countries having adopted some\u00a0regulation to phase out single-use plastic,\u201d said Fredrick Njehu, Greenpeace Africa Senior Political Advisor. \u201cThe Kenyan government should not backslide on the progress made in its plastic-free ambitions by folding to pressure from fossil fuel giants, because it stands to derail the progress made across the entire continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACC wrote to US Trade Representative officials, stating,\u00a0\u201cKenya could serve in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics to other markets in Africa through this trade agreement.\u201d\u00a0The ACC also calls for the lifting of limits placed on the plastics waste trade, which experts believe would circumvent the new Basel Convention rules.<\/p>\n

In a separate\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0(https:\/\/bit.ly\/3hPutha<\/a>) to the Chairman of the US International Trade Commission, the ACC states that the trade agreement will be an \u201cimportant model\u201d for other African states. The letter reads, \u201cWith this foothold, the United States can play an influential role in shaping trade policy across Africa,\u201d and that it will enable the US to \u201cbuild a platform for U.S. chemical manufacturers to expand exports to enter new growth markets throughout sub-Saharan Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is shameful but not surprising that struggling fossil fuel giants are lobbying for an expansion of their polluting plastic footprint into the African continent to keep their profits flowing,\u201d said Greenpeace USA Senior Plastics Campaigner Kate Melges. \u201cThese companies hope to continue dumping single-use plastics on communities around the globe, despite their known impacts to the environment and public health. Making public statements about ending plastic pollution while quietly lobbying to allow Africa to be used as a plastic dumping ground is next level hypocrisy and greenwashing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The efforts by the ACC would undo progress that Kenya and other African states have made to address plastic pollution. Kenya passed one of the toughest laws on the production, sale, and use of plastic bags in 2017, and recently expanded on it to outlaw plastics in protected areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenya has made great strides to reduce plastic pollution – there is a ban on the use and manufacture of single-use plastic carrier bags and recently a ban on plastic in protected areas.\u00a0This trade deal could turn Kenya into a dumpsite and diminish what the country has achieved. We are\u00a0petitioning the Ministry<\/a>\u00a0(https:\/\/bit.ly\/31FOssU<\/a>) of Trade to say no to this deal,\u201d continued Njehu.<\/p>\n

Oil companies, including Shell, Exxon, and Total — alongside consumer goods companies like PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble, are members of the industry\u2019s Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which has committed to spend $1 billion toward waste management efforts to prevent plastic pollution in places like Africa and Asia. Despite these public commitments, the ACC, which represents some of these companies, argued in the documents that such infrastructure will require continued plastic exports because a circular economy requires ample feedstock. The ACC told Unearthed that they were concerned about how the restrictions could impede exports from low and middle income countries to those with more infrastructure capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Chemistry Council has lobbied the US government during the COVID-19 pandemic to use a US-Kenya trade deal to expand the plastics industry\u2019s footprint across Africa. Documents obtained by … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":9005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7442,7443,11],"tags":[8346,8343,857,3953,8344,6016,8342,8345,2297,2533],"class_list":["post-9004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-countries","category-eastern-africa","category-top-news","tag-alliance-to-end-plastic-waste","tag-basel-convention","tag-exxon","tag-greenpeace","tag-pepsico","tag-petrochemicals","tag-plastics","tag-procter-gamble","tag-shell","tag-total","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Shell_Cracker_Plant-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JWkQ-2le","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10466,"url":"https:\/\/www.oilnewskenya.com\/index.php\/albertine-refinery-add-3b-annually-to-ugandas-gdp\/","url_meta":{"origin":9004,"position":0},"title":"Albertine Refinery to Add $3B Annually to Uganda’s GDP","author":"","date":"June 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) has said studies have indicated a positive cost-benefit analysis for the Albertine Graben Refinery adding up to $3.3 billion annually to the country's national GDP of $27 billion and up to $8.2 billion to the national capital formation. 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