There are two days left until the international community agrees on a first global treaty aimed at ending plastic pollution and the global danger it represents to the environment, climate and human health. On Friday, November 29, on the fifth day of the final negotiation session organized in Pusan (South Korea), the president of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC), the Ecuadorian Luis Vayas Valdivieso, put on the table a new version of his “non-paper”, a summarized text that attempts to reconcile the sometimes diametrically opposed positions of the delegates of the more than 170 countries present in South Korea.
Main advance: the text mentions for the first time the crucial issue of reducing plastic production. This is demanded by the majority of countries, including those in the European Union and Africa, which consider that the treaty must address the problem at its source, turning off the tap.
At the current rate, this production should double by 2050, reaching one billion tons annually and representing 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. A small group of States (Iran, Russia, India, etc.), in particular oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia and supported by China, are opposed: they question the mandate given by the United Nations, which refers to the entire cycle life. of plastic and advocates that the treaty be limited to the issue of waste management and recycling.
“A step in the right direction”
An opposition that has paralyzed negotiations since the beginning of the week. To unblock the situation and satisfy the majority of countries demanding the inclusion of a reduction in production in the treaty, the president of the INC added an article to his text. This is article 6. Titled “sustainable production”, it takes up a proposal from Panama, supported by 104 countries, including those of the European Union.
To try to reach an agreement in Pusan, refer the issue to the first Conference of the Parties (COP), which could be organized a year after the conclusion of the agreement: “In its first session, the Conference of the Parties adopts as an annex a global objective to reduce the production of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels. » From the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, represented in Pusan by the Minister of Energy, Olga Givernet, we salute “a step in the right direction.”
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