There are two days left for the international community to agree on a first global treaty intended to put an end to plastic pollution and the global danger it represents for the environment, the climate and human health. Friday, November 29, on the fifth day of the final negotiation session organized in Pusan (South Korea), the president of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), the Ecuadorian Luis Vayas Valdivieso, put on the table a new version of its “non-paper”, a summary text which attempts to reconcile the sometimes diametrically opposed positions of the delegates from the more than 170 countries present in South Korea.
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Main advance: the text mentions for the first time the crucial issue of reducing plastic production. This is demanded by a majority of countries, including those in the European Union and Africa, who consider that the treaty must tackle the problem at the source by turning off the tap.
At the current rate, said production should double by 2050, reaching one billion tonnes per year and representing 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. A small group of states (Iran, Russia, India, etc.) – notably oil producers – led by Saudi Arabia and supported by China are opposed: they are calling into question the mandate given by the United Nations, which concerns the entire life cycle of plastic and advocates for the treaty to be limited to the issue of waste management and recycling.
“A step in the right direction”
An opposition which has paralyzed negotiations since the start of the week. To unblock the situation and satisfy the majority of countries who are demanding the inclusion of a reduction in production in the treaty, the president of the CIN added an article to his text. This is article 6. Entitled “sustainable production”, it takes up a proposal from Panama, supported by 104 countries, including those of the European Union.
To try to reach an agreement in Pusan, he refers the issue to the first Conference of the Parties (COP), which could be organized a year after the conclusion of the agreement: “At its first session, the Conference of the Parties adopts as an annex a global target to reduce the production of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels. » At the Ministry of Ecological Transition, represented in Pusan by the Minister for Energy, Olga Givernet, we salute “a step in the right direction”.
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