Ronald Steenblik

@ronsteenblik.bsky.social

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Retired OECD but still active policy wonk. I post on trade, the environment, and energy, especially fossil fuel subsidies. Supporting QUNO's work on identifying and reigning in subsidies to plastics. Once told by Mel Brooks: "You have no taste!"

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Ronald Steenblik

Hurricanes Are Trapping Small Island Nations in Ever-Worsening Spirals of Debt – Wired | #Island #Hurricane | MORE at EcoSearch

I've just received an e-mail message from my home insurance policy that says (translated): "As part of a mandatory annual verification, we need to confirm your email address. If you have received this communication and your address has not changed, no action is expected from you." But, ... um ...

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The Life before Plastic showcases examples of traditional practices made of natural materials widely used across the African continent as alternatives to plastic. 🌍 🍃 Read the publication ⬇️ www.no-burn.org/resources/li...

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#bancars General Motors to pay nearly $146 million for excess car emissions www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

General Motors to pay nearly $146 million for excess car emissionswww.washingtonpost.com General Motors will pay a penalty of nearly $146 million and take other steps to resolve excess emissions from nearly 6 million vehicles on the nation’s roads

No. 11: Call on governments to stop subsidizing plastic polymer plants, and to cease providing export credits and other government-mediated finance for such plants.

Plastic Pollution Solutions - 10 Ways to Reduce Plastic Pollution – NRDC | #PlasticPollution | MORE at EcoSearch

Well, a bit of progress: As Heather Clancey writes, "Amazon has replaced single-use #plastic air pillows with recycled paper in 95% of its delivery boxes in N. America. A full switch is planned by the 2024 holiday retail season. #plasticpackaging

Amazon eliminates 15 billion plastic ‘air pillows’ from delivery boxes | GreenBizwww.greenbiz.com The retailer’s latest step to remove single-use plastic across its North American distribution network.

“Paper” cup on a French train, with a warning not to discard it except in a recycling bin (for eventual incineration) because it contains #plastic (likely the inner lining).

Great article, with a wonderfully sarcastic summing up of the sorry state of multilateral subsidy disciplines. Glad to see a ... oops, THE ... leading int. trade journalist critiquing the IMF's estimates of "fossil-fuel subsidies" and the misinterpretation & misrepresentation of said estimates.

Today’s Trade Secrets. State subsidies can help the environment or simply waste money, distort trade and lead to conflict. This would be a v good time to have comprehensive and binding global rules to sort good from bad. Guess what? We don’t. t.co/gwK3x8IRm2

The state handouts that get out of controlt.co [FREE TO READ] There is no effective means of constraining destructive subsidies

The latest episode of the Plastisphere podcast has just dropped, and the topic is (drumroll) … subsidies to plastics! Hosted & produced by the brilliant @anjakrieger.bsky.social, it’s an interview with Dr. Alexandra Harrington, my colleague Andrés Naranjo, and yours truly. Just in time for #INC4 !

‎Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment : Plastic Money - Turning Off the Subsidies Tap sur Apple Podcastspodcasts.apple.com ‎Afficher Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment, ép Plastic Money - Turning Off the Subsidies Tap - 20 avr. 2024

1️⃣ Nice scoop from Phillip Isakpa on tomorrow's (17 April) meeting of the International Tax Task Force (ITTF), in Washington, DC. The ITTF seeks to raise funds via new taxes and fossil fuel subsidy reform to help poorer countries meet their climate commitments. 🌎

Climate tax task force meets in US to close $2.4trn funding gap – Businessamlivewww.businessamlive.com

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Reply to

Peter Ungphakorn

Brazil keeps “PSH”—over-the-limit subsidies in stockholding—as a separate item. “PSH” deadlocked agriculture the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference. Brazil was previously among Cairns Group members proposing PSH be part of domestic support disciplines 2/3 docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages...

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Microplastiques : Terre inconnue ? Les #microplastiques dans les #sols impactent leur fonctionnement, leur #biodiversité, mais aussi la qualité des plantes cultivées, les rendements de #cultures et la #sécuritéalimentaire. #PlasticsTreaty

(PDF) Microplastiques : Terre inconnue ?www.researchgate.net PDF | La pollution des sols par les plastiques est beaucoup moins bien documentée que celle des océans, alors que les quantités de plastiques dans les... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...

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In 2024 EU pumps four times more money into farming animals than growing plants : www.theguardian.com/environment/... ... and meanwhile ... 🧪🌍🦤

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✨How will the #PlasticsTreaty saga continue? Will we see courageous states stepping up to stop #plastic pollution? Magnus Løvold shares the story so far. Listen to all three parts to get ready for the upcoming negotiations at #INC4 in Ottawa, Canada! soundcloud.com/plastisphere...

How (Not) To Make a Plastics Treatysoundcloud.com The podcast on plastic, people, and the planet by @anjakrieger. Plastics have become the basis for our modern lives, but they also pollute the planet. Will we be able to develop a healthy relationshi

1️⃣ Congratulations to GRID-Arendal, a partner of UNEP, and the report's co-authors for their interesting and timely report for UNEP on "Climate Impacts of Plastics". I've a question on 🌎 #FossilFuelSubsidies , however.

Climate Impacts of Plastics | GRID-Arendalwww.grida.no This report seeks to identify options for measures and strengthen governmental accountability in addressing the climate impacts of plastics. It aims to maximise the climate benefits of the

Happy equinox day, everybody!

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Drip. Drip. Drip. No hurry. Almost two years after the much-celebrated 2022 (incomplete) fisheries subsidies agreement received consensus approval, only 44% of #WTO members have bothered to ratify it. Speaks volumes for governments’ commitment to sustainability 1/2 www.wto.org/english/news...

Russia formally accepts Agreement on Fisheries Subsidieswww.wto.org The Russian Federation deposited its instrument of acceptance of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies on 18 March. Ambassador Nikolai Platonov presented Russia’s instrument of acceptance to Director-G...

Important article on tax #subsidies to primary #plastics producers in the USA, by Grist writer, @jbwinters.bsky.social. Companies have received nearly $9 billion in state & local tax breaks since 2012 to build or expand 50 plastics manufacturing facilities, according to the Env. Integrity Project.

Your tax dollars may be funding the expansion of the plastics industrygrist.org Plastic manufacturers have received $9 billion in subsidies for new or bigger facilities since 2012.

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Sometimes I wonder how much of me is now microplastics.

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In the second part of Magnus Løvold's recap of the #plasticstreaty negotiations, we travel back to Paris in the summer of 2023. What happened at the second meeting to negotiate the global treaty on #plasticpollution? Find out on the Plastisphere podcast 🎧https://on.soundcloud.com/akvbEtLR3gxqKcG18

#PlasticsTreatyon.soundcloud.com The podcast on plastic, people, and the planet by @anjakrieger. Plastics have become the basis for our modern lives, but they also pollute the planet. Will we be able to develop a healthy relationshi

So refreshing to read this excellent article by Lisa Friedman on "Why Fossil Fuels Subsidies Seem Impossible to Kill". Unlike most journalists, she sticks to talking about actual recognised tax breaks the U.S. Congress could (in theory) close — not citing IMF's externalities posing as "subsidies". 🌎

The Zombies of the U.S. Tax Code: Why Fossil Fuels Subsidies Seem Impossible to Killwww.nytimes.com For the fourth year in a row, President Biden is trying to eliminate federal tax breaks for coal, oil and gas companies. But fossil fuel subsidies have proven difficult to stop.

True. It was 3.14 mainly in the United States, though it was 2024.03.14 in China. Most other places in the world it was 14.03.

Reject American calenderic imperialism and celebrate pi day in June (22/7). The mathematician offspring suggested celebrating tau day (6.28). Then I had an epiphany. Tau day should be celebrated on the sixth day of the year at .283185… past midnight. 06-Jan at 6:47:41:786.

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We took our time. We read, listened, talked. Lots to think about as World Trade Organization #WTO delegations pick up the pieces from Abu Dhabi and look ahead to the next conference in two years’ time and beyond. 7 talking points after the Ministerial Conference #MC13 With @bobwolfe.bsky.social

What next? Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conferencetradebetablog.wordpress.com Lots to think about as WTO delegations pick up the pieces from Abu Dhabi and look ahead to the next conference in two years’ time and beyond

I want to express my gratitude to #BlueSky monitors for taking down this really nasty person's account. All I did was factually respond to a skeet that this person put up castigating another BlueSky user unfairly regarding the IMF's estimates of "fossil fuel subsidies". Below is her response to me:

"Ireland subsidises fossil fuels to the tune of €2.9 billion a year and McCarthy said that has to be addressed." This sum, mainly tax expenditures, is calculated and reported in commendable detail by Ireland's Central Statistics Office and can be viewed here: www.cso.ie/en/releasesa...

Margie McCarthy: We need to grasp the nettle on fossil fuel subsidieswww.businesspost.ie The head of research and policy insights at the SEAI explains the policy and personal changes she would make for a greener world

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Tenure-track position in Fisheries Ecology at the beautiful Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, open for a few more weeks! Come join a great fisheries tradition. 🐟🦑🧪🌎 umces.peopleadmin.com/postings/1823

Tenure Track Faculty Position — Fisheries Ecologyumces.peopleadmin.com The Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) invites applications from individuals who demonstrate vision for carrying out novel an...

1️⃣ Commentary by Dr. Emily Jones (Blavatnik Schl of Govt.; U. College, Oxford) calling for more dialogue & voluntarism at the WTO, and less focus on developing legally binding rules. My question is, what advantage or added value does the WTO have over other fora when using such an approach?

The World Trade Organization should reorient from rule-making to dialoguewww.chathamhouse.org Yet again, a WTO ministerial is being criticized for producing little of substance. But the Organization provides an opportunity for powers like the US, China, EU and India to agree pragmatic ways for...

Great interview btwn intrepid Plastisphere host and #PlasticsTreaty negotiations insider, Magnus Løvold. Having not paid attention during the birth of those negotiations, nor having attended the 1st meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-1), I really learned a lot. Subscribe!

✨ Podcast alert: The new Plastisphere episode is out! Magnus Løvold takes us on a journey through the global #PlasticsTreaty negotiations - with all you need for a good story: Hope, ambition, drama, bad faith, and magical diplomacy. soundcloud.com/plastisphere...

How (Not) to Make a Plastics Treaty - Part I: Ambition in a Bracketsoundcloud.com --What happened at the INC-1 in Uruguay? Recap 1/3-- This year, 2024, is the crucial year for the plastics treaty negotiations. If you haven’t heard about them, the United Nations are working on an i

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The main result from the #WTO's Abu Dhabi #MinisterialConference is another failure on #FisheriesSubsidies and agriculture. @bobwolfe.bsky.social and I will write a wrap-up, after digesting everything. But what happened to #InvestmentFacilitation?⬇️ tradebetablog.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/1...