Aamjiwnaang First Nation is backed into a corner, surrounded by industrial flares, noise and toxic emissions.
This area in southern Ontario, now the country’s largest concentration of refineries, has been the nation’s home since time immemorial, where Aamjiwnaang harvested food and medicine for generations. Now, thanks to the petrochemical industry and successive governments’ reluctance to rein in pollution, it’s known as Chemical Valley, where some of the worst air quality in the country has been recorded, leading to high rates of cancer, childhood asthma and miscarriages. The United Nations has called Chemical Valley a “sacrifice zone.”
But Aamjiwnaang First Nation isn’t willing to sacrifice anything. After unsuccessfully pursuing different approaches to pressure governments to finally tackle the pollution crisis, it's taking the matter to the global stage.
With a representative in Busan, South Korea, as the world’s countries negotiate a new, legally binding treaty that could limit plastic pollution, slash plastic production, and phase out single use plastics, the nation is betting on international diplomacy.
Aamjiwnaang First Nation Chief Janelle Nahmabin told Canada’s National Observer she’s tried everything she could to advocate for her community, and as a “last resort” is turning to the U.N. plastic treaty negotiations in the hope a breakthrough can be achieved. It’s widely recognized plastic pollution poses huge risks to peoples’ health and the integrity of ecosystems.
“It's not a knowledge problem. It's an inaction problem,” she said. “There's no way that we can continue the status quo.”
Plastics are emerging as a key battleground for environmentalists because of their dual harm to the environment and climate. Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic waste seep into the environment, breaking down into micro- and nanoplastics that accumulate in the food we eat, the water we drink and air we breathe. Scientists have even discovered plastic particles in breast milk and fetuses. For Indigenous communities, the plastic build-up in the environment is threatening traditional ways of life and inflicting severe health issues.
The climate impact of plastic production is also immense, responsible for billions of tonnes of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions each year, far surpassing emissions from global aviation. And they’re set to grow: plastics are driving up oil demand over the coming decades, potentially wiping out half of the remaining carbon budget if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5 C, at the same time fossil fuels must be phased out to avoid crossing dangerous tipping points.
Another day in Chemical Valley
Plastic has become everyone’s problem. But no one feels the weight of it as strongly as those living in the midst of plastic production facilities, like Aamjiwaang First Nation. In April, as world delegates descended on Ottawa for the previous round of plastic pollution negotiations, benzene levels in the air were spiking in Chemical Valley, forcing the First Nation to issue an emergency alert to its members as people fell ill.
The federal government stepped in to impose strict benzene pollution controls to mitigate the crisis, leading to one plant shutting down. But the whack-a-mole approach is limited in its effectiveness. Chemical Valley is a petrochemical hydra, home to over 50 refineries, representing about 40 per cent of Canada’s chemical facilities.
Weeks after the federal government extended an emergency order to control benzene pollution, levels of sulphur dioxide, which causes choking, coughing, and burning eyes and throats, were spiking at dangerous levels. Sulphur dioxide is a toxic compound released in the refining of hydrogen sulphide, which can be used to produce pharmaceuticals, polymers and plastic additives. Sulphur dioxide can be released from flaring at refineries and petrochemical facilities, and is part of the pollution problem a binding plastics treaty could help address.
This week as Canada’s National Observer toured the refineries at the doorstep of Aamjiwaang First Nation, rotten egg and acrid chemical smells wafted over children playing ball hockey nearby. Air monitoring data revealed another spike of sulphur dioxide on Nov. 26, reaching 300 parts per billion — a level more than four times higher than the maximum hourly concentrations set by the federal government. Just another day in Chemical Valley.
It’s against this backdrop the Aamjiwnaang First Nation is turning to diplomacy to help.
“We were the original caretakers, and we're still here, and so, we're not going to be pushed aside,” Nahmabin said. “We have that sacred responsibility that we're hoping others can join alongside with us.”
In the U.N. system, only nation-states have a formal seat at the negotiating table, forcing Aamjiwnaang to engage in nation to nation diplomacy with Canada, with an eye toward encouraging the country to advocate for Aamjiwnaang’s priorities on the world stage. But as Aamjiwaang takes the fight to South Korea, the fossil fuel industry is out in full force to shape the negotiations, too.
Trapped in plastic
As countries decarbonize by phasing out fossil fuels to heat buildings and power vehicles, revenue streams for oil and gas companies are under threat. Many fossil fuel companies are turning to plastics as a way to grow their business, framing plastics as essential for reducing food waste, packaging clean water and for medical uses.
According to an analysis from the Center for International Environmental Law, at least 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists have registered for the current round of negotiations, even more than the last round of talks in Ottawa.
“The increase, once again, in fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists engaged in Plastics Treaty negotiations exposes an industry pulling out all the stops to keep us trapped in the plastic crisis,” Greenpeace Canada senior strategist Sarah King said in a statement.
On a phone call from Busan, Ecojustice law reform manager Melissa Gorrie told Canada’s National Observer, if the treaty is going to meaningfully address plastic pollution, it must include mandatory steps for all countries, rather than setting an aspirational goal and leaving it up to countries to take voluntary action.
“We do not want a situation where countries are able to just decide what their national target and approach is going to be, because as we've seen with the [Paris Agreement], that looser approach is not necessarily achieving the outcomes that are desired,” she said.
She said priorities for a strong treaty include addressing the full life cycle of plastics from the extraction of fossil fuels to cleaning up plastic waste; restricting or eliminating harmful chemicals of concern; and putting people at the centre of the treaty, recognizing there are health and human right impacts, as well as rights held by Indigenous Peoples that must be respected.
Broadly, there are two agreements to learn from for a strong plastics treaty: the Paris Agreement and the Montreal Protocol.
The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 to address climate change, is one option. It involves setting a target (holding warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial temperatures), and letting countries establish their own strategies to contribute to that goal. There is no enforcement mechanism, meaning emission reductions remain voluntary.
Then there is the Montreal Protocol, agreed to in 1987, that regulates the production and use of chemicals harmful to the ozone layer. The treaty includes a list of chemicals that have been phased out, and because of the treaty, the ozone layer is on track to recover within decades.
Advocates say a strong plastics treaty should more closely mirror the Montreal Protocol, by setting out a list of harmful chemicals and working to phase them out.
However, in a paper presented to countries’ negotiating teams sketching out potential options to find agreement, Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Vaya Valdivieso, who chairs the negotiations, said he has not “detected sufficient convergence” to even suggest texts countries could agree to for some of the key issues.
“One concern that has been raised with me is that all countries, while sharing similar high ambition, do not share the same legal and administrative structures or national circumstances, that would allow for a ‘one size fits all’ approach to plastic products,” he wrote. “This suggests to me that we need to include considerations that combine the level of ambition with flexibility in approaches at the national level.”
Gorrie said she’s concerned to hear the chair is floating flexibility like this as a way to bridge the divide.
“That essentially says every country can basically do what they see fit and there's no strong requirements to take any particular actions in any particular way,” she said.
Back on the ground in Aamjiwnaang, life goes on. Outside the window of Nahmabin’s office is a view ending in the intricate piping, tanks and stacks that mark the horizons in the First Nation.
It’s a reminder of what will continue to weigh on the health of her people, her closest loved ones and the land, if nothing changes.
That’s why on the first day she started her campaign for chief, the community gave Nahmabin the mandate to push for change: “The feedback I got was everyone saying, less pollution. Less pollution, cleaner air.”
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