By AFP - Agence France Presse
Divided negotiators on plastic pollution call for more time
Sara Hussein and Katie Forster
Negotiators have failed to agree on a landmark treaty to reduce plastic pollution and need more time to continue discussions, the diplomat chairing the talks in South Korea said on Sunday.
For a week, delegates from almost 200 nations fought to prevent millions of tons of plastic waste from entering the environment each year.
Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peak, in the deepest ocean trench, and spread over almost every part of the human body.
Two years ago, countries agreed to find a way to deal with the crisis by the end of 2024.
However, a week of negotiations in Busan failed to resolve deep divisions between “high-ambition” countries seeking a globally binding agreement to limit production and phase out harmful chemicals and “like-minded” countries, mostly oil producers, who want to focus on waste.
A draft text released on Sunday afternoon, after several delays, included a wide range of options, reflecting the continuing disagreement.
President Luis Vayas Valdivieso acknowledged late on Sunday that “some critical issues still prevent us from reaching a comprehensive agreement.”
“These unresolved issues remain a challenge, and more time will be needed to address them effectively,” he said.
“There is general agreement to resume the current session at a later date to conclude our negotiations.”
Several nations took the floor to support the request for more time, but their agreement ended there.
Rwanda's delegate, Juliet Kabera, spoke of “strong concerns about the continued requests by a small group of countries to remove binding provisions from the text that are indispensable for the treaty to be effective.”
She made a statement on behalf of dozens of countries, demanding a treaty with targets to reduce production and phase out chemicals of concern.
“A treaty that lacks these elements and relies only on voluntary measures would not be acceptable,” she said, inviting the supporting delegations to stand up to applause from the plenary hall.
- 'Big gap' -
Abdulrahman Al Gwaiz from Saudi Arabia, however, strongly insisted on a continued discussion about production or chemicals of concern.
“If you address plastic pollution, there will be no problem with the production of plastics because the problem is pollution, not the plastics themselves,” he said.
Backed by allies including other Arab nations, Russia, and Iran, he insisted that all parts of the latest draft text should “be open to proposals” if negotiations were to continue.
Iran also said there was still a “huge gap” between the parties, while Russia warned that agreement on a treaty was “being undermined by very high ambitions on the part of some parties.”
The comments raised the prospect that any new negotiations could follow the pattern seen in Busan, where the president's repeated attempts to synthesize and simplify the text met with resistance.
Delegations seeking an ambitious treaty have previously warned that a handful of countries were firmly blocking progress.
A French minister accused the like-minded group of “continuous obstruction,” while Fiji's Sivendra Michael called out a “very minority group” for “blocking the process.”
Diplomats refused to directly name those standing in the way of a deal, but public statements and presentations showed that Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russia have tried to block production cuts and other ambitious targets.
All three delegations refused repeated requests for comment from AFP.
Environmental groups warned that another round of talks could be similarly hampered if ambitious countries were unwilling to push for a vote.
“We need to get out of this consensus cage that is condemning us to failure and start thinking much more creatively about how to deliver a treaty that the world desperately needs,” said Graham Forbes of Greenpeace.
The world's two largest plastic producers - China and the United States - remained relatively quiet in public.
Neither supported Rwanda's statement, although China's delegate warned of “concerns that have not been reflected in a balanced way.”
bur-sah/kaf/mtp
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