Failed again! Week-long negotiations in Busan, South Korea, to reach a global treaty against plastic pollution have failed to reach an agreement and will continue at a later date. After two years of talks, more than 170 countries represented at the fifth and in principle final meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating committee on this subject had until Sunday evening to reach an agreement. They didn't succeed.
Discussions quickly turned into a dialogue of the deaf between a majority of countries wanting an ambitious agreement and a small group of oil-producing states led by Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran. “We are worried about the continued obstruction” of certain oil-producing countries, declared Sunday morning the Minister of Energy, Olga Givernet. The “coalition of high ambitions” wanted a strong treaty tackling the entire life cycle of plastic, that is to say from the production of polymers based on petroleum products to the management of plastic waste. .
Plastic is the third most manufactured material in the world, after cement and steel. We produce 460 million tonnes each year. Microplastics are everywhere; in the human body, the air, the oceans. In developed countries, two levers have been activated against this pollution. First, a drastic drop in the quantities produced. Particularly for single uses and packaging. Then, the intensification of collection and recycling. But it is the Philippines, India, Malaysia, China and Indonesia that dump the most plastic into the ocean (not to mention waste on land). Plastic pollution could triple worldwide by 2060, according to an OECD calculation. Negotiations could nevertheless resume later, although we do not yet know when or in what form.
