NEW YORK CITY: At a recent UN Security Council meeting convened in New York City to discuss the war in Ukraine, delegates noticed something different. On the conference table in front of them, ambassadors had been given plastic water bottles to slake their thirst.
This would not have been noteworthy but for the fact that the UN had decided in 2019 to go plastic-free. A banner erected at the entrance of UN headquarters at the time made the policy quite clear: “No single-use plastic.”
The return of plastics to the Security Council chamber incensed climate-conscious diplomats and visitors, as it appeared to signal the environment had become an afterthought while the war in Ukraine took center stage.
All the bold talk about tackling the climate crisis in recent years seemed to evaporate the moment the war began, leaving behind the distinct impression that the environmental agenda…