Treaty on plastic pollution: “a handful of countries, guided by financial interests, blocked adoption”

But the delegation managers gathered in an exceptional session at dawn did not succeed in agreeing on this latest version despite a sensitive evolution in the formulation.

This text. Consequently, which included even more than a hundred points to be clarified, constituted an “acceptable base of negotiation”, had indicated two distinct government sources questioned by AFP just after the online text on the UN site of negotiations.

In the session, he did not consensus, as reported by the representatives of Saudi Arabia, India and Uruguay.

As such, some members have asked that the not selected texts are not attached to a next session of negotiations.

The European environment commissioner Jessika Roswal. In addition, on the other hand, estimated that the work carried out is a good basis for treaty plastic pollution: “a handful a resumption of negotiations.

Plastic treaty: the EU ready for compromises for an agreement but not at any price

Many delegates have expressed their disappointment. Therefore, the Fiji representative believing that this failure “weakens multilateralism”.

“A handful of countries. guided by short -term financial interests and not by the health of their populations and the sustainability of their economy, blocked the adoption of an ambitious treaty against plastic pollution,” regretted the French Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier Runacher, in a declaration.

Throughout the process, a trench warfare has indeed opposed two camps which seem irreconcilable.

The “ambitious”. including the European Union, Canada, Australia, many countries in Latin America, Africa and islands, which wanted to reduce global plastic production and control the most worrying molecules for health, in order to reduce pollution.

Opposite. essentially oil countries which refuse any constraint on treaty plastic pollution: “a handful the production of hydrocarbons at the base of the plastic industry and any ban on dangerous molecules or additives.

These countries did not bear that all the negotiation was based on “all the lifespan” of the plastic. that is to say from the substance derived from oil to its state of waste.

They waged a shelf war to obtain the change in the “scope”. the scope of the text of the treaty, which had been set in 2022 at the United Nations General Assembly.

China. the world’s leading producer of plastic, had documents at the start signed documents with this group, but remained relatively discreet throughout the process.

Under the eye of representatives of the petrochemical industries present in the corridors. Additionally, the countries had already failed once to produce a common text during the last sequence of negotiations, in Busan in treaty plastic pollution: “a handful South Korea at the end of 2024.

The subject is all the more important since 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. Less than 10% is recycled.

Global treaty on plastic pollution: the blocking is total