Plastic Treaty: discussions are shattered in Geneva

Translections to draw up the first international treaty against plastic pollution flew into Geneva on Wednesday at thirty hours from the planned end of negotiations, most countries that have rejected an awkward attempt at the presidency.

After almost three years of negotiations and nine days of intense discussions by Lake Geneva, the diplomat who presides over the debates, Luis Vayas Valdiviesopresented a summary text and a fairly complex consultation procedure to try to overcome the still very distant positions.

But instead of making it possible to move forward, the text of 31 articles caused anger or at least the dissatisfaction of the majority of the delegates present in the room, who do not accept it as a base of negotiation.

Colombia, which wants an ambitious text to combat plastic pollution, judged the document unacceptable.

Chile, Mexico, Panama, Canada as well as the European Union (EU), including France, have followed suit in the South American country, as well as the small Pacific islands.

For the representative of Chile, this text is clearly unbalancedcar Everything is relegated to the national level and the text does not create any space for international cooperation to combat plastic pollution.

The text does not make the minimum necessary to meet the urgency of the challenge we facenoted the Minister of the Environment of Denmark Magnus Heunicke, whose country provides the rotating presidency of theUE.

In 2022, we promised citizens of the world a treaty to remove plastic pollution and reduce the use of chemicals that threaten the environment and health in plastic production. The proposed text is not what we proposed three years ago.

Mr. Heunicke also stressed that a compromise Request movements of all parties.

This text speaks of closing an injury … but the text presented here makes this injury fatal and we will not accept itsaid the Panamanian negotiator, adding: It is not ambition, it is surrender.

Gift to the petrochemical industry

The European Union judges this text for its part unacceptable and that it lacks Clear, robust and concrete measureswhile Kenya denounced the absence of binding global obligations on anything, meaning that that has no demonstrable value.

THE ONG environmental protection have also shot red balls on the text, denouncing the absence of reference to any constraint on industrial production of virgin plastic.

It’s a gift to the petrochemical industry and a betrayal of humanityjudged Graham Forbes, head of the delegation of Greenpeace.

Even the oil countries that opposed all requests for regulating plastic production and the prohibitions of certain chemical molecules dangerous for the environment and health have indicated that they do not like the text.

Their criticisms (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar …) focus on the absence of cadre and field of action.

China, which is also the world’s largest producer of plastic, has spoke in plenary session to call the president to focus on the most important problems in the last hours of negotiation rather than increasing divergences.

You need a text rebalancingjudged the French Minister for the Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier Runacher. From my point of view, it is possible to write a text of ten pages which takes into account all the main points of the file. The most difficult It is to have it adopted.

Only the International Council of Chemistry (ICCA) did not issue any opinion on the text: Our industry remains committed to supporting an agreement to help put an end to plastic pollution and we encourage governments to continue working to finalize an agreement. […] If the desire to have a perfect agreement has the consequence of leaving Geneva without agreement, the world will have lost the best opportunity it has ever had to face plastic pollution on a global scaleindicates a brief press release sent to the France-Presse agency.