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Kenya’s green credentials queried in plastics debate 

Kenya’s green credentials queried in plastics debate 
Close-up shot of paper cutouts showing green solutions. Image used for representational purposes only. PHOTO/Pexels

Kenya’s green credibility has been questioned as it bids to host the permanent Global Plastics Treaty Secretariat at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi. 

The questions intensified last week as countries gathered in Nairobi for an informal three-day meeting where key divisions persisted ahead of global plastics negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland next month. 

In a statement issued after the meeting, the US government pushed back against measures to tackle the ever-growing production of plastics in a new treaty, as the crucial talks in Nairobi failed to produce a breakthrough ahead of the upcoming final round of negotiations in Geneva. 

Kenya came under pressure to prove its environmental leadership as it hosted the heads of delegations last week ahead of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) in Nairobi next week. 

Kenya’s credibility is being questioned after it failed to sign the ‘Stand Up for Ambition’ declaration at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) session that sought to develop an international legally-binding instrument on plastic pollution in Busan, South Korea, and the ‘Nice Wake-Up Call’ at the recent UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France. 

Plastics ambition 

Critics say Kenya’s commitment to an ambitious treaty remains uncertain, despite lobbying to host the Global Plastics Treaty Secretariat at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi. Kenya has already sent formal requests to Azerbaijan, Cuba, Finland and France to support its bid.  

Environment Cabinet Secretary Dr Deborah Barasa confirmed that only Kenya and Switzerland, which is proposing Geneva under the World Health Organisation (WHO), had applied to be host country. 

Barasa said in the campaign for Nairobi during bilateral talks with a visiting French delegation that the city continues to play a strategic role in global environmental governance.

However, critics argue that Kenya’s efforts may be more about positioning than principle. 

While Kenya in 2017 banned plastic bags and single-use plastics in protected areas and joined the Kenya Plastics Pact, it only entered the “High Ambition Coalition” in late 2024.

The coalition, which now has nearly 100 member nations, calls for a legally binding, circular, and lifecycle-based approach to plastic management. 

Greenpeace Africa welcomed the country’s recent alignment on plastics ambition but appealed for deeper action. Campaigner Gerance Mutwol called for “eradicating plastic pollution throughout the entire lifecycle” and eliminating items like plastic sachets. He said Kenya must champion “a just, inclusive, low-carbon, zero-waste, toxic-free, reuse-oriented economy”. 

A global Ipsos survey commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Plastic Free Foundation found that 85 per cent of people support banning unnecessary and harmful single-use plastics.

However, Kenya’s absence from key declarations contrasts with its stated ambition and raises concern among diplomats and civil society. 

India was also missing from the recent declarations, despite publicly supporting a legally binding treaty. Countries like Rwanda, often seen as regional climate leaders alongside Kenya, have been more consistent in their public commitments. 

France’s Ecological Transition minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said a strong global plastics treaty must reduce primary plastic production (which the US opposed at last week’s meeting in Nairobi), phase out harmful products, redesign materials for circularity, and be guided by the “polluter pays” principle, 

This is a core environmental law concept holding that those responsible for pollution should bear the costs of the prevention, control, and remediation. 

Speculation had mounted ahead of the Nairobi meeting aimed at finding a way forward as to how President Donald Trump’s administration would handle the thorny discussions on the UN pact on pollution, and the US officials finally spelt out their new position. 

In a statement after the Nairobi talks hit a deadlock, the US came out against plastic production limits in the UN treaty, making it clear that it does not support provisions that would regulate the supply side of plastics or feedstocks in its manufacturing. 

It said that for areas without a “level of convergence” – including production – action should be left to “country-level discretion”.

After China, the US is the world’s largest producer of plastic polymers – the basic building blocks of plastic products that are primarily derived from fossil fuels. 

During Joe Biden’s presidency, the US flip-flopped between different positions on the UN treaty.

It first attempted to water down, then backed measures to limit plastic production, and finally following Trump’s election, largely sat on the fence during crunch talks in Busan, last December. 

But in the statement in Nairobi last week after negotiations hit a deadlock, the US said it wants to ensure that “we will grow our economies, maintain jobs for our citizens, all the while reducing plastic pollution through cost-effective and pragmatic solutions”. 

“We support an agreement that focuses on efforts that will lead to reducing plastic pollution, not on stopping the use of plastics,” it added, endorsing a position frequently stated by other fossil fuel producers opposed to plastic production cuts like Saudi Arabia and Russia. 

Divisive treaty elements 

After countries dramatically failed to reach an agreement in Busan, the informal meeting in Nairobi last week was billed as a crucial opportunity to find potential solutions and lay a path toward landing a deal at the INC-5.2 negotiations in Geneva, writes Matteo Civillini in the latest edition of the authoritative UK-based Climate Home News digital publication. 

But while last week’s talks in Kenya were described as “constructive” and resulted in some overall progress, countries were still far apart on the most divisive elements of the treaty, including how to deal with the ever-expanding supply of plastics, three negotiators who requested anonymity told Climate Home. 

Long-standing fault lines remain largely unchanged. On the one hand, the coalition of nearly 100 countries across the developed and developing countries wants an “ambitious” treaty that stems from the rising flow of plastics, ideally with a global target to reduce production and consumption to “sustainable levels”. 

On the other hand, most oil-and-gas producing nations, including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and petrochemical powerhouses like India, argue the pact should be limited to addressing consumption and recycling. 

Global supply chain 

David Azoulay, director of environmental health at the non-profit Centre for International Law (CIEL), said it was “concerning” though not totally unexpected, that the Nairobi meeting did not provide the kind of breakthrough or radical changes in the negotiation dynamics that could unlock the negotiations ahead of INC-5.2 in Geneva. 

“High ambition coalition” negotiators said the goal should be to find language that could bring as many countries on board so that the treaty would meaningfully cover a significant proportion of the global plastics supply chain.

The treaty’s final shape is expected to take form in Geneva next month. 

Kenya endorsed Rwanda’s paper on plastic production at INC-5 in Busan, joining 42 African nations. However, its history of lobbying pressures—including a 2020 attempt by the American Chemistry Council to use a US-Kenya trade deal to expand plastics in Africa—still shadows its global stance, critics say.  

As host of UNEP and past venue for critical treaty milestones like UNEA-5.2 and INC-3, Nairobi is a leading contender to host the Global Plastics Treaty Secretariat. But for Kenya to lead globally, its actions must now match its ambition. The world is watching. 

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