the point that has been blocking everything for three years and still threatens negotiations

Pollution – Fight against plastic pollution? Yes, but not affects the interests of some. Representatives of 175 countries meet this Tuesday, August 5 in Geneva in Switzerland under the aegis of the UN: they have ten days to try to write together the first world treaty aimed at reducing the scourge of plastic pollution, which threatens to suffocate the planet. But it’s even easier to say than to do.

In discussion for three years, this text “Legally binding” for states “Will not automatically arrive”warned the diplomat who presides over the debates on Monday, the Ecuadorian Luis Vayas Valdivieso, receiving representatives of more than 600 NGOs who follow the debates.

Against the backdrop of exacerbated geopolitical and commercial tensions, this additional session of intergovernmental negotiations – called CIN5-2 – was added after the failure of discussions in Busan in South Korea at the end of 2024. A group of oil producing countries blocked any advance.

Divergent interests

And for three years, they have always blocked the advance of the treaty, always with the same point of dissension: the question of production. If a majority of the 175 countries led by the “High ambition coalition” (which brings together 71 states including those of the European Union) wants a text which establishes the reduction of plastic production, a block of oil producing countries opposes it.

This minority group, led by Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, wants the treaty to be confined to the question of waste management and recycling. At each meeting since 2022, they brandish their veto to oppose a final text which would mention a drop in production. “The purpose of this treaty is to end plastic pollution, not with plastic in itself”, had proclaimed the Kuwait delegate last December during the previous plenary. As emphasizes The worldSaudi Arabia considers plastic as ” a new deposit in the face of uncertainties on global oil demand. »

On the other hand, Rwanda and Peru, two driving countries of the coalition, offer a 40 % reduction between 2025 and 2040.

And « path To arrive at the treaty

In March 2022, the 175 countries had adopted a qualified resolution of“Historical” which set for the objective of leading by the end of 2024 to a first legally binding treaty to eradicate plastic pollution and the global danger it represents for the environment, the climate and human health.

But since then, despite the plenales of 2023 and 2024 in Busan in South Korea, the process is blocked by this handful of petroleum countries whose interest diverge from the main goal of this treaty.

“Will things be easy?” No. Will they be simple? No. Is there complexity? Yes. Is there a path to reach a treaty? Absolutely “said to AFP the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Inger Andersen, who organizes the debates.

If nothing is done, plastic pollution could triple worldwide by 2060, also after a tripling world production at 1.2 billion tonnes against 460 million tonnes in 2019, according to a calculation of the OECD.