U.N. Environment Program

Two local government sanitation workers clean a river from plastic waste using a raft made of old plastic jerrycans in Jakarta on Sept. 20, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)

The U.N. environment chief said Sunday she was beginning to see convergence on the world's first binding treaty on plastic pollution despite differences on production caps and a tax-like plastic fee.

Turkish first lady Emine Erdoğan has engaged in discussions with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) head Achim Steiner on the sidelines of the Sustainable Development Goals Forum at a Dubai summit.

A warming planet and changes to land use patterns mean more wildfires will scorch large parts of the globe in coming decades, causing spikes in unhealthy smoke pollution and other problems that governments are ill prepared to confront, according to a U.N. report being released Wednesday.

A need for a contract under the U.N. Environment Program, similar to the Barcelona Convention, stands as an inevitable reality, while marine litter and especially single-use plastics threaten the future of seas and sea creatures, a senior Turkish official said.

An international conference aiming to protect the Mediterranean Sea from pollution is being held with various presentations, panels, meetings and side events in Turkey's southern province of Antalya.

Kenyans producing, selling or even using plastic bags will risk imprisonment of up to four years or fines of $40,000 from Aug. 28, as the world's toughest law aimed at reducing plastic pollution came into effect.

The East African nation joins more than 40 other countries that have banned, partly banned or taxed single use plastic bags, including China, France, Rwanda, and Italy.