After five days of arduous negotiations, 175 nations assembled in Paris resolved on Monday that the first text of a highly awaited international treaty to prevent plastic pollution should be ready by the end of November.
In order to finalize the treaty in 2024, the assembly’s negotiating committee demanded that “a zero-draft text” of a “legally binding instrument” be prepared before a third round of negotiations in Nairobi.
The choice was made at the last minute during a meeting that was organized by France and Brazil, and it was approved by the entire plenary at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Gustavo Meza-Cuadra Velasquez of Peru, who is the head of the forum’s intergovernmental negotiating committee, inquired if there were any further interventions on this matter.
UN will complete draft of plastics treaty by year’s end
As he lowered the gavel, he declared, “It is so decided.”
The breakthrough occurred following a great deal of “knit-picking” and “delaying tactics” by some nations, according to Christophe Bechu, France’s minister for ecological transition.
Large plastics producing nations, such as Saudi Arabia, a supplier of fossil fuels, as well as China and India, resisted the idea that the deal could be decided by a vote rather than by consensus during the first two days of the negotiations, which were entirely devoted to a debate over procedural rules. This led to frustrations.
As fragmented microplastics have been discovered on the highest mountains, in the deepest oceans, in the bellies of sea birds, and in human blood and placentas, concern over plastics has increased.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), plastic accounted for 3.4 percent of world emissions in 2019 and thus also contributes to global warming.
On the basis of present trends, annual output of plastics derived from fossil fuels would nearly triple to 1.2 billion tonnes by 2060, while garbage generation will surpass one billion tonnes.
Environmental organizations are asking for the treaty to go beyond recycling or pollution and limit the volume of manufacturing because less than 10% is recycled and more than a fifth is illegally dumped or burned.
According to Li Shuo of Greenpeace, “the world urgently needs an international plastic treaty, one that regulates production and one that addresses pollution from its very source.”
He told AFP that dynamics between nations are similar to those in international climate discussions, when “big producer countries are on the defense,” and that manufacturers want to concentrate on pollution rather than reducing the amount of plastic produced.
