Federal councilor Albert Rösti believes that a lack of results in the Geneva talks would be “a serious end” and “unacceptable”. Thursday at midday, he said “having a better hope” than the day before and waiting for a new text in the afternoon.
“At the end, it is the major countries, the major producers who will be decisive,” admitted to the press the federal advisor. He has multiplied the meetings since his arrival in Geneva Wednesday evening, several dozen.
He found his “constructive” American counterpart, even if the differences are important. He also participated in a discussion in a limited group with Washington on the one hand and states such as Canada, Norway, Iceland, Australia and New Zealand.
Thursday morning, he then saw European officials and representatives of Greenpeace and WWF, all on the same approach as Switzerland, “to unite messages”. For ten days, several figures have circulated on the number of countries that participate. He settled on Wednesday at 185, a UN official told Keystone-ATS.
Also on Wednesday, the president of the negotiations Luis Vayas Valdivieso had presented a new draft text largely rejected by most countries. This one “was not at all ambitious” and did not reflect “the requirements of Switzerland”, insists Mr. Rösti.
Not voting excluded by Switzerland
Switzerland now wants a refocused text on three major questions. An improvement in production, without reduction objective, a decrease or at least monitoring of problematic plastic products and a financing mechanism for developing countries must appear in an agreement, according to her.
“It is in interest” of all countries, estimates the federal adviser. And he adds that details can be set later. The most important thing is to convince critical countries at least “not to slow down” an effort against plastic pollution. However, oil countries have so far blocked any progress on the issue of production.
According to Mr. Rösti, the question of a vote is not taboo. “We would rather like a consensus, that would be the best result,” he says. “If we have to vote, this is a scenario that we must discuss. We do not exclude any scenario because it is important to solve this problem,” he insists.
Switzerland competes with Nairobi to welcome the secretariat for a future agreement. “But it’s not time to discuss it,” also repeated the federal advisor.
This article was published automatically. Source: ATS