Plastic: Canada prefers not to have a treaty rather than having a bad

It is better to have any understanding than to conclude a bad one. Consequently, according to Canadian officials who participated in negotiations on a treaty aimed at combating the global plastic pollution crisis.

Due to positions that seem irreconcilable. Consequently, members of the 184 countries trying to develop the first world treaty against plastic pollution were unable to give birth to a text during the sixth cycle of negotiations which ended in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday.

However. Nevertheless, for one of the Canadian officials who acted as negotiators, it is better to have a treaty than to have a bad one.

We knew that not to sign a bad treaty was better than simply obtaining a weak treaty. For example, […] I’m going to be honest with you. Moreover, I think some countries [dont les positions différaient plastic: canada prefers not have de celle du Canada] believed that we would accept any treaty just to show that we do something, but they were wrongsaid the Canadian negotiator in a technical basic for the media on Friday morning.

Canadian Minister of the Environment. In addition, Julie Dabrusin said in a written statement that Canada did not accept a treaty that would only be focused on cleaning the problem.

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A global treatise on plastic pollution must prevent this pollution from continuing. Meanwhile, must recognize the right of indigenous peoples from being protected, she argued. Despite the efforts and the hard work of thousands of delegates in the CIN-5.2. there is still work to be done to obtain an effective global treaty and which aims for the entire life cycle of plastics.

Only a few countries oppose – Plastic: canada prefers not have

Since the start of the negotiations. almost three years ago, a majority coalition of countries proposed that the final treatise on plastic pollution included a limit to the quantity of plastic that companies can produce.

However, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India opposed any ceiling on virgin plastics.

The reuters news agency even reported that the Trump administration sent a plastic: canada prefers not have memorandum to a handful of countries. to urge them to reject a treaty that would impose limits on plastic production.

Questioned about this memoa Canadian negotiator answered this during technical basic: If this memo existed, I have never seen it. But we knew full well that the question of plastic production. its cap would be extremely complex for the United States, but this was not only the case for them. Many countries, from many regions, have suggested that the cap of production was going too far.

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For the United States. other countries, added the civil servant, the inclusion of a ceiling for plastic production in the treaty was indeed a red line Not to be crossed.

The powerful oil. gas producing countries, such as the United States, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia, and representatives of the plastic industry who participated in negotiations, wanted a treaty focused on improved waste management and reuse of waste rather than attacking the root of the problem.

The rest is uncertain

After the failure of plastic: canada prefers not have the negotiations on Friday. the delegates did not share any immediate plan to take over the discussions.

It is not clear. therefore, if there will be, in the short term, other negotiations on plastic pollution, or or and when they take place.

Canada estimates that it is necessary to continue the difficult negotiations relating to this issue et. not just with the countries with whom we agreesaid a negotiator.

Ana Rocha. director of Gaia, a network of environmental groups present in dozens of countries, praised the decision of the countries which refused to sign a bad treaty.

We support the ambitious majority that refused to retreat. accept a treaty that is lacking in respect to countries truly engaged in this process and betrays our communities and our planet.

Once again, according to the director of Gaia, Negotiations have failed, hampered by a chaotic and biased process which has left even the countries most committed to the impossibility of being heard.

Inger Andersen. executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said that, despite the difficulties and disappointment, We must recognize that significant progress has been made.

This process will not stop. she added, but it is too early to say how long it will take to reach a treaty.

Negotiations started in 2022. Canada played a decisive role in bringing countries to the negotiating table, welcoming the fourth cycle of negotiations in 2024.

A scourge

Humanity produces more than 430 million tonnes of plastic each year. this equipment, derived from oil, is made so plastic: canada prefers not have present in our lives and in the environment that microplastics have even been found in the placenta of healthy women, according to a study recently published in the newspaper Toxicological Sciences.

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Before the negotiations taking place in Switzerland. the medical journal The Lancet has published a summary of plastic: canada prefers not have certain studies according to which the materials used in plastics cause many diseases At each stage of the plastics life cycle and at each stage of human life.