2023-06-02 20:14:30
The fight against global plastic pollution recorded a stage victory in Paris on Friday: after five “laborious” days, 175 countries decided to establish a “first version” of a future treaty by their next meeting. negotiations in November in Kenya. At the Paris headquarters of Unesco, the plenary session of the International Negotiating Committee (INC) of UN-Environment ended Friday evening with the unanimous adoption of a resolution providing that this first draft be drafted between now and the next negotiation summit, scheduled for November in Nairobi. Crucial step before a final text still hoped for at the end of 2024.
“Here is what was proposed, is it decided?” INC President Gustavo Meza-Cuadra Velasquez asked delegates. Before adopting the resolution with a hammer blow, to the applause of the delegates. This positive outcome follows a “laborious start to the week” and “slightly dilatory maneuvers” by certain countries, in the words of the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, on Friday morning.
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Between obstructions and “tangible progress”
The principle of a legally binding treaty was agreed in February 2022 in Nairobi, at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The stakes are high because plastic, derived from petrochemicals, is everywhere: packaging, clothing fibers, construction equipment, medical tools… Waste of all sizes is already found at the bottom of the oceans, in the stomachs of birds. and on top of the mountains. Microplastics have been detected in blood, breast milk or placenta.
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Reduction, recycling…
And the situation is set to worsen: annual production has more than doubled in 20 years to reach 460 million tonnes. It could triple by 2060 if nothing is done. However, only 9% is recycled. Plastic also plays a role in global warming: it accounted for 3.4% of global emissions in 2019, a figure that could more than double by 2060 according to the OECD.
To “end plastic pollution by 2040”, some fifty countries, including those of the G7 with the exception of the United States, have formed a Coalition for High Ambition, which has put the reduction in production world at the top of its priorities, which is however not unanimous. The big producing countries prefer to talk about reuse, alternatives to plastic and recycling, but this axis is criticized by NGOs. Among the solutions also discussed: better waste management and financial mechanisms to help the poorest countries.
The question of the toxicity of plastics and additives, raised by civil society and scientists, is also mentioned, but many countries and industrialists, influential observers of the process, fear that the future treaty will block innovation. After technical discussions at the end of 2022 in Uruguay, Paris hosted the second session of negotiations. After the 3rd meeting in Kenya in November, negotiations will continue in April 2024 in Canada to be concluded in South Korea at the end of 2024.
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