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Responsibility and Allocation for Environmental Damage Caused by Marine Plastic
Summary
Despite its title referencing marine plastic pollution and environmental damage, this paper is primarily a legal analysis of international treaty negotiations over plastic pollution responsibility — not a scientific study of microplastic pollution itself. It examines how national interests and industrial lobbying have stalled the International Plastics Convention and discusses frameworks for allocating environmental liability, and is not directly relevant to microplastic science or human health impacts.
The international community agreed to a binding treaty on marine plastic pollution, but after five INC negotiation rounds, no final deal was reached. Further discussions are scheduled for 2025. While it is regrettable that the International Plastics Convention remains unresolved, efforts to combat plastic pollution continue steadily. Negotiating international environmental conventions is challenging due to varying national circumstances. In the Plastics Convention, despite broad recognition of the need for an agreement, divisions over industrial interests hindered progress. The discussion about responsibility and allocation of environmental pollution revolves around determining who should bear the burden, and this topic is directly linked to national interests and can lead to conflicts of opinion between countries. Therefore, this article presents effective measures for responsibility and allocation that should be adopted in the new plastics convention to protect the marine environment from marine plastics.