Negotiations on a future international treaty against plastic pollution will resume on Monday in Paris, where 175 nations with varying ambitions are expected to agree on the first draft of a long-awaited text, under opposing pressure from industry and NGOs. .
Packaging, clothing fibers, building materials, medical instruments… plastic, derived from petroleum, is everywhere. Its annual production, which has more than doubled in 20 years to 460 million tonnes (Mt), could triple by 2060 if no action is taken.
In addition, two-thirds are discarded after use and less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled.
The waste ends up in the oceans, on sea ice, in the stomachs of birds or even on top of mountains. Microplastics have even been detected in blood, breast milk and placenta.
Faced with this threat to health and biodiversity, the United Nations Environment Assembly created in 2022, in Nairobi, an “Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee” (INC) tasked with drawing up a “legally binding” treaty by 2024.
After relatively technical initial discussions in November in Uruguay, CIN will resume its work from May 29 to June 2 at Unesco headquarters in Paris, the second of five stages of negotiations to reach a historic agreement on the life cycle of plastic .
– Power balance –
The five days of discussions will not determine a draft treaty, but the more than 1,000 delegates are expected to draw up the main lines.
These will come out of the balance of power mainly between Asian countries, which produce half of the plastic, some big consumers like the United States, and the 53 countries of the “coalition of high ambition to end plastic pollution”.
Led by Rwanda and Norway, this coalition includes, among others, the European Union (EU), Canada, the United Arab Emirates and several countries in East Africa and Latin America, such as Mexico, Peru and Chile.
“Reducing the use and production of plastic” are the priorities of the draft, targets implicitly rejected by countries that prefer to focus on recycling, innovation and better waste management.
Avoiding controversy, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) published a report in May with the triptych “Reuse, recycle and redirect” to create a “circular economy” for plastic.
A plan capable, according to the program, of reducing abandoned waste (burned, left in nature or in illegal dumps) to 41 million tons by 2040 (against about 78 Mt in 2019, according to the OECD).
“If the report spoke more explicitly about ‘reduced production’, some large countries would never sign the treaty,” Diane Beaumenay-Joannet, of the NGO Surfrider, told AFP.
– Industry influence –
The binding nature of the treaty is also in question. The United States, for example, wants to limit the legal scope and apply it only to the fundamental principles of the text, leaving the signatories free to establish solutions at national levels, indicates a French diplomat.
Artists such as Jane Fonda and Joaquin Phoenix joined Greenpeace USA in May to urge US President Joe Biden to raise his ambitions.
One of the points of tension revolves around the distribution of effort, between rich economies that have historically polluted the most and countries that do not want to compromise their development without financial compensation.
The involvement in the process of the plastic industry, which generates billions of dollars and millions of jobs, concerns NGOs. Around 175 organizations, led by Greenpeace, sent UNEP a series of measures against “the undue influence of petrochemical companies” in the negotiations.
Its representatives, such as the European association Plastics Europe, will be present at Unesco. Professional, scientific or associative observers will not be able to enter every day, due to lack of space.
Host country France, which plans to ban single-use plastics by 2040, wants to make this summit a showcase for its goals.
To this end, the government is organizing, starting this Saturday, a political summit with around forty ministers of the environment or high-level diplomats to present, before scientists and NGOs, the range of solutions proposed by the EU, one of the world’s largest consumers of plastic, although it began to decrease its use and to enact stricter legislation.
#negotiations #Paris #treaty #plastic #pollution