Just as it has happened in the climatic summits (COPS), where words play an essential role in the final texts (for example, in the last COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, the term ‘fossil fuels’) was eliminated, here the weakening of language also made its appearance.
“The subject with non-papers [los borradores]it was that they had many ‘voluntary measures’, when the mandate speaks of a legally binding document; This prevented that both countries and organizations approve the final document and, after all, it was better, because the text was very weak and pointed to plastics as final products and not as a set of chemical substances that become toxic materials, ”said Larisa de Orbe.
Anyone would think that, with so many world summits, the most basic negotiation processes would already be overcome. Nothing farther from reality. They say that “the devil is in the details” and for sample, a button.
“There is no agreement on the regulation, how decisions are going to be made, by consensus, where all countries agree? What happens when consensus is not reached, would it be by vote? The voting option – which would facilitate agreements – has been blocked a lot. This issue, which is vital, is being left at the end. Even Mexico has not been clear about what it supports, if the consensus or vote, ”said the president of the Mexican Academy of Environmental Law and founder of the Organization Ecological Action.
Another detail is the type of agreement. For our interviewee, international climate change agreements have not been achieved because they are framework agreements, “an international architecture where it is much more difficult to make modifications, it is a longer process.” In the case of the plastic treaty, what they are looking for is that it is a specific agreement, in which it is easier to propose amendments, annexes, among other instruments.
The colonialism of garbage
Despite these obstacles and that oil countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, among others, delayed the process to reach agreements, there were many others, just over 100, which did manage to agree on the need to reduce the production of plastics and please prohibit the more than 16 thousand toxic chemicals that are involved in their production.
Autodenominated as ‘ambitious coalition to end the plastic pollution’ (HA), the group is made up of Member States of the European Union, United Kingdom, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Nigeria, Gabón, Japan, South Korea and Australia, among others.
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