Observers are hopeful that a legally binding treaty to curb global plastics pollution will be forged at the next round of talks set to take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 5 to 14 August, but uncertainty remains over how far any agreement will go to cap production and the use of harmful chemicals.
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The United Nations Environment Programme announced the extended session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) meeting on 3 March, after leaders failed to agree on the treaty rules in what was supposed to have been the final talks in Busan, South Korea in December.
Member states “fought back” at the last INC-5 meeting, no longer compromising with petrostates for a less ambitious treaty, said Ana Rocha, director of global plastics policy at environmental coalition Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).
At INC5, Global South countries from Africa, Latin America, Pacific and Caribbean islands released multiple text proposals calling for plastic production reduction. More than 100 countries signed a declaration that called for caps on the production of primary plastic polymers, which are manufactured directly from fossil fuels or bio-based feedstocks. The Philippines, one of the biggest contributors to ocean plastic pollution, was the only Asian country that supported the declaration.
“The tides turned at INC-5, and the possibility of an ambitious plastics treaty is now more concrete than it’s ever been,” said Rocha.
“At INC-5.2, governments must keep up the momentum and stay strong against fossil fuel interests in order to deliver the treaty that will keep us below 1.5 degrees.”
Albert A. Magalang, Philippines chief of Climate Change Service at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, delivers the country’s stance on plastic pollution at INC-5 in Busan, South Korea in November. It was the only Asian country that supported a declaration calling for limits on the production of primary plastic polymers. Image: Philippine embassy in South Korea
Michael Sadowski, executive director at nonprofit The Circulate Initiative, said that policymakers and the plastics industry are already building momentum towards greater accountability for corporates ahead of the August conference.
The European Union implemented in February new packaging and waste regulation rules aimed at reducing trash by setting binding reuse targets and restricting certain types of single-use packaging. It is expected to set a precedent for stricter packaging sustainability.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes are also increasingly being adopted globally, he added.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam have approved either EPR or EPR-related legislation, with Malaysia being the latest nation to have introduced a polluter-pays mandate in September.
“These efforts reflect growing recognition of the need for stronger action – momentum that global negotiations cannot ignore. We hope INC-5.2 will be the final set of negotiations and that the gavel will go down on an ambitious treaty,” said Sadowski, who has attended past treaty negotiations.
Clarifying the scope of discussions
The scope of the treaty includes stopping plastic pollution, not analysing chemical or health issues, said Doug Woodring, founder and managing director of Hong Kong-based non-profit Ocean Recovery Alliance.
The Busan talks focused on chemicals of concern and other measures after petrochemical-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia and China strongly opposed efforts to target plastic production, over the protests of countries that bear the brunt of plastic pollution.
Such issues are better addressed in other treaties like the Stockholm Convention, which aims to protect human health and the environment from the effects of persistent organic pollutants, he said.
“The topic of the treaty is about pollution and reducing that, not deep-diving into issues of how plastic is made and with what,” said Woodring. “There is too much dilution of so many ideas that it is hard to formalise an agreement that can be more concrete.”
If the talks are postponed again after August, the scope must be tightened even more and there must be a refocus on the original plan of reducing pollution, said Woodring.
“If one more meeting is needed, then so be it. But it will be better to align countries around a document that gets companies and countries moving down a road of less pollution, than to have one that is disregarded because stakeholders think it is too stringent or against national objectives,” he added.
“No one wants or supports plastic pollution, regardless of what country they come from,” he said.
