Diplomats from 184 countries have only a few hours on Thursday to try to forge a common text in the tear which would establish a first international treatise on the fight against plastic pollution, after the massive rejection Wednesday of a project of synthetic text.
The debates in plenary session in Geneva Wednesday around a clumsy synthesis proposal of ten pages took place in great confusion.
A single large country, India, finally accepted this text as a basis for discussion, when it was massively deemed “unbalanced” and “unacceptable” to preserve the generations to come by dozens of other countries, as well as by environmental NGOs observative of the process.
End of negotiations at midnight
Cate Bonacini, from the Swiss NGO Ciel, nevertheless estimated that there is “always a chance to see a new text emerge on Thursday”. The French Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who came to participate in the debates in Geneva, estimated that it was “possible to write a text of ten more balanced pages”.
The end of the negotiations is scheduled for midnight Thursday, and could overflow overnight until Friday if diplomats were in the process of reaching a common text.
Pushed by a United Nations resolution of 2022, they have been trying to forge a “legally binding” text for almost three years for states which attack plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
But under the eye of representatives of the petrochemical industries present in the corridors and opposed to any coercion concerning the volume of plastic production in the world, they have already failed once to produce a common text during the last sequence of negotiations, in Busan in South Korea at the end of 2024.
Less than 10 % recycled
This new diplomatic sequence, started in Geneva since August 5, was supposed to finally lead to a common text.
The awareness of the growing pollution of plastic began with spectacular images of the oceans and affected marine fauna. But the multiplication of scientific work on the impact of polymers and chemical additives on health has changed the debate on the side of human health. A coalition of several hundred scientists from many countries follows these negotiations.
“Everything is relegated to the national level”
Because the planet has produced more plastic since 2000 than during the previous 50 years, mostly single -use products and packaging. And the trend accelerates: if nothing is done, current production, of some 450 million tonnes per year, should triple by 2060, according to OECD forecasts. However, less than 10 % are recycled.
The draft treaty proposed on Wednesday “only made sure that nothing was going to change,” said David Azoulay de Ciel. “He goes to the petroleum states and the requests of the industry with low, non-compulsory measures, which guarantee that we will continue to produce more and more plastic, endless, endangering human health, the environment and future generations,” he adds.
In addition, as the industry requests, “everything is relegated to the national level, the text does not create any space for international cooperation to combat plastic pollution,” also criticized the Chilean delegate during the meeting.