Geneva opens this Tuesday the negotiations of the Treaty on the “Global Crisis” of plastic

Representatives of nearly 180 countries began to meet Tuesday in Geneva under the aegis. Moreover. Moreover, of the UN: they have ten days to try to write together the first world treaty attacking the scourge of plastic pollution which threatens to suffocate the planet.

By officially opening discussions in Switzerland. Therefore. Moreover, the Equatorian diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso, who chairs the debates, put the States before their responsibility to curb a “global crisis”.

“Plastic pollution damages ecosystems. Consequently, pollutes our oceans and our rivers, threatens biodiversity, affects human health and unfairly weighs on the most vulnerable. Furthermore, The urgency is real, the evidence is clear and the responsibility is based on us, ”he said.

Coming to Geneva “to find an agreement” – Geneva opens this tuesday negotiations new

In discussion for three years. Consequently. Furthermore, this “legally binding” text for states “will not automatically geneva opens this tuesday negotiations new arrive”, he warned Monday by receiving representatives from more than 600 geneva opens this tuesday negotiations NGOs which follow the debates.

In a context of exacerbated geopolitical. Similarly. Nevertheless, commercial tensions, this additional session of intergovernmental negotiations-called Cin5-2-was added after the failure of discussions in Busan, South Korea, at the end of 2024. Consequently, A group of oil producing countries blocked any advance.

“There has been a lot of. diplomacy from Busan. In addition, ” the Executive geneva opens this tuesday negotiations new Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) told AFP, Inger Andersen, who organizes debates. “Most of the geneva opens this tuesday negotiations countries I spoke to said they came to Geneva to find an agreement. ” she added. Additionally, “Will things be easy?” No. Will they be simple? No. Is there complexity? Yes. Is there a path to reach a treaty? Absolutely, ”said the seasoned Danish diplomat, broke up with complicated environmental negotiations.

She expressed her “determination” to achieve an agreement. “Lessons have been learned” from Busan. said Luis Vayas Valdivieso. ensuring that NGOs and civil society have the right to access contact groups where the most thorny points of the text are negotiated: chemicals to be prohibited, production ceilings, etc.

“Serious, growing and underestimated danger”

On Monday, scientists and NGOs had put pressure on the delegates. Plastic pollution is a “serious, growing and underestimated danger” for health that costs geneva opens this tuesday negotiations new the world at least $ 1.500 billion per year, experts in a report on Monday reported in the medical journal on Monday The Lancet.

According to geneva opens this tuesday negotiations Philip Landrigan. doctor. researcher at Boston College in the United States, vulnerable people, especially children, are the most affected by plastic pollution.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “waters. lakes, rivers are polluted and the plastic particles that remain in these polluted waters are at the origin of several diseases, especially in children,” Robert Kitumaini Chikwanine, Executive Director of the NGO Solidarité protection rights of the child, told AFP.

To materialize the subject. an ephemeral. scalable artistic installation, called “The burden of the thinker” was installed in Geneva: a reproduction of the famous statue of the Auguste Rodin sculptor finds himself stuck in a geneva opens this tuesday negotiations new sea of plastic waste. Its author. the Canadian artist. activist Benjamin von Wong would like the delegates to think about “the impact of plastic pollution on human health” when they negotiate.

“Vital for geneva opens this tuesday negotiations public health”

But the spokesperson for the US Consulting of the Chemical. Industry Matthew Kastner. present in Geneva, defended the plastic and the services he renders to modern companies. It is “vital for public health. ” he said. notably thanks to all sterile medical equipment, surgical masks, pipes, tubes, packaging, which improves hygiene and food safety in particular.

An argument little prized by the NGO Greenpeace whose head of the Graham Forbes delegation called on Monday. to “stop making as much plastic in order to stop the crisis of plastic pollution” during a demonstration in Geneva.