For the first time, negotiators from most of the world’s countries are discussing what is considered a global treaty. end plastic pollution,
Representatives and observers of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution called it a welcome sign that talks at this fourth of five scheduled plastics summits have moved from ideas to treaty language.
The most controversial idea is to limit the amount of plastic produced globally. Currently, it remains in text over the strong objections of plastic producing countries and companies and oil and gas exporters. What is most plastic made from? fossil fuel And chemicals.
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The Ottawa session was scheduled for late Monday or early Tuesday. There is likely to be a heated discussion on Monday night over whether this question of plastic production is a focus for the working groups before the next and final meeting.
Negotiators around the world are turning their ideas into actual text as they begin writing the first global treaty to end plastic pollution. (Adrian Wilde/The Canadian Press via AP. File)
Stewart Harris, industry spokesman for the International Council of Chemical Associations, said members want a treaty that focuses on recycling and reusing plastics, sometimes called “circularity.”
“We want to see the treaty completed,” Harris said. “We want to work with governments to implement this. The private sector has a role to play in this.”
dozens of scientists The Coalition of Scientists for an Effective Plastics Treaty came to the meeting to provide scientific evidence on plastic pollution to negotiators, he said, to dispel misinformation.
“I heard yesterday that there is no data on microplastics, which is completely false: 21,000 publications have been published on micro and nanoplastics,” said Bethany Carney Almroth, an ecotoxicology professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who co-founded the coalition. Are leaders. “It’s like Whack-a-Mole.”
He said scientists were being harassed and intimidated by lobbyists and told the United Nations that a lobbyist yelled in his face at one meeting.
Ecuador’s chief negotiator Walter Schuldt said that despite their differences, the represented countries had a common vision for moving forward in the treaty process.
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“Because at the end of the day, we’re talking about the future survival of not just human life but all forms of life on this planet,” he said in an interview.
He said he was proud to participate by contributing his “grain of sand” to global action to address the issue environmental crisis,
Negotiators aim to conclude a treaty by the end of 2024. The topics assigned to expert working groups by tonight will move forward to the final round of talks in South Korea.
Without this preparatory work between meetings, it will be difficult to complete the negotiations this year. Several countries said Sunday night they were committed to working between the meetings.
Treaty negotiations began in Uruguay in December 2022, after Rwanda and Peru proposed starting the process in March 2022.
Progress was slow during Paris talks in May 2023 and in Nairobi in November as countries debated the rules of the process.
When thousands of negotiators and observers arrived in Ottawa, committee chair Luis Vías Valdivieso from Ecuador reminded them of their objective and asked them to be ambitious.
“The world is counting on us to deliver a new treaty that will catalyze and guide action, and provide the international cooperation needed to build a future free from plastic pollution,” he said. “Let’s not let them down.”
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Delegates are discussing not only the scope of the treaty, but also chemicals of concern, problematic and avoidable plastics, product design, and financing and implementation.
Delegates also streamlined the unwieldy collection of options that emerged from the last meeting.
Many people traveled to Ottawa from communities affected by plastic manufacturing and pollution. Residents of Louisiana and Texas living near petrochemical plants and refineries handed out postcards targeting the U.S. State Department that read, “I wish you were here.”
They traveled together as a group from the Plastic Free Movement, and asked the interlocutors to visit their states to experience the air and Water Pollution direct.
Joe Banner of St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana said, “This is still the best option to see change in our communities. They’ve been taken over by corporations. I can’t go to parish government.” “This feels like this is my only chance and hope to help our community get through this, to heal.”
Members of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus held a press conference on Saturday to say that microplastics are contaminating their food supply and that the pollution threatens their communities and the way of life guaranteed to them. They felt that their voices were not being heard.
“We have big stakes. These are our ancestral lands that are being polluted by plastic,” Juresa Lee of New Zealand said after the event. “We are rights holders, not stakeholders. We should have more space to speak and make decisions than the people creating the problem.”
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Traditionally, there was no plastic, but now in the Bay of Plenty, the source of their seafood, sediment and shellfish are full of tiny plastic particles. They regard nature’s “resources” as treasures, Li said.
“Indigenous ways can show the way,” Lee said. “What we are doing now is clearly not working.”
Ve Vaghiei traveled from Alaska to represent Arctic indigenous peoples. She is reminding decision makers that this treaty must protect people from plastic pollution for future generations.
“We’re here to be the conscience, to make sure they make the right decisions for all the people,” he said.
