Negotiators who arrived in Busan, South Korea for what was supposed to be the final Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting this past week to ink a binding treaty that would curb global plastic pollution had to leave without achieving what they came for.
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As the talks concluded in the early hours on Monday, it became clear that consensus could not be reached on divisive issues like production limits.
The outcome is the latest setback in multilateral efforts to forge agreement on global issues such as climate action. In Baku, Azerbaijan last month, a new climate finance goal approved at the annual United Nations COP summit was criticised for falling short of trillions needed to support developing economies in tackling the climate crisis.
Almost 200 countries joined the week-long negotiations in Busan, which began in 2022, with the UN saying it will reconvene next year and that an INC 5.2 is needed to give member states more time to resolve enduring differences and agree upon the final text. No definite timeline or venue have been fixed.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Inger Andersen acknowledged that there is still “persisting divergence in critical areas” which needs to be addressed, even as she tried to emphasise how “good progresss” has been made towards securing a final deal in the future.
“Through the Busan talks, negotiators have reached a greater degree of convergence on the structure and elements of the treaty text, as well as a better understanding of country positions and shared challenges…The world’s commitment to ending plastic pollution is clear and undeniable.”
UNEP executive director Inger Andersen at the closing plenary session of the INC-5 meeting in Busan, South Korea, in the early hours of Monday (2 December). Image: UNEP / Flickr
Progress in Busan had been blocked by a small number of mostly oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia and Russia, who rejected curbs on plastics output, insisting that the emphasis be put on improving recycling capacity. Globally, less than 10 per cent of plastic waste is currently recycled, according to the UN.
Speaking at the meeting’s final plenary session, Saudi Arabia delegate Abdulrahman Al Gwaiz said: “There should be no problem with producing plastics. The problem is the pollution, not the plastics themselves.”
Among member states, most are in consensus to take tougher action to curb plastics production with stricter limits. Plastics production is forecast to jump about 60 per cent to 736 million tonnes a year by 2040, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The UN issued a statement saying delegates had agreed to a Chair’s Text, which will serve as the starting point for negotiations at a resumed session. Through the week, members negotiated two documents from the INC chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso, but many delegates and officials had been frustrated by the slow pace of progress.
‘Little assurance that next INC will succeed’
Civil society groups and environmental campaigners have pointed out how the Chair’s draft text is “littered with concessions to petrochemical states” instead of honouring the will of the vast majority of member states calling for an ambitious treaty, even though it still keeps production reduction on the table.
For now, the Chair’s Text contains language that are square-bracketed, particularly on issues like production limits, indicating that parties have not come to an agreement and some text could potentially still be deleted.
NGOs took issue with what they said was a ‘lack of transparency’ as the deadline loomed closer, with negotiators “cloistered away in closed-door informals” and “bilaterals” which excluded civil society participation.
Disappointment was palpable among delegates and industry observers, with WWF global plastics policy lead Eirik Lindebjerg lamenting that after another “week of hard-fought and frustrating negotiations”, no agreement was made.
“It has now been over 1,000 days and five negotiation meetings since governments agreed to establish a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution. Over this time, more than 800 million tonnes of plastic has been produced, over 30 million tonnes of which have leaked into our ocean, harming wildlife, poisoning ecosystems and destroying lives, to say nothing of the plastic that has been sent to landfill or burnt,” he said.
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), a worldwide network of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organisation and individuals in over 90 countries, said in a statement: “Without decisive action, there is a strong probability that the same petro-state minority will continue their obstructionist tactics and further imperil the plastics treaty process.”
“There is little assurance that the next INC will succeed where INC-5 did not.”
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Member states will not roll over and play dead. As long as ambitious countries hold on to their principles, civil society will have their backs.
Arpita Bhagat, plastics lead, GAIA Asia Pacific
Arpita Bhagat, plastics lead at GAIA Asia Pacific added that the latest Chair’s Text is unacceptable to the majority of Global South countries and the billions of people they represent, and that it is not a reflection of the will of the vast majority of member states, who do support ambitious measures in a legally-binding, global instrument.
“This is not a game where the chair can pick and choose who wins and who loses,” she said at a press conference on Sunday.
“This is a matter of life and death, especially for Global South communities,” she said. “Member states will not roll over and play dead. As long as ambitious countries hold on to their principles, civil society will have their backs.”
Rahyang Nusantara, deputy director at Dietplastik Indonesia and a convenor of the Asia Reuse Consortium called for the inclusion of a dedicated article with ambitious reuse targets financed by a new and dedicated financial mechanism in any prospective agreement. This would allow for the establishment and scaling up of reuse and repair systems and is key for a safe and toxic-free transition away from plastics, he said.
In a statement published after the closing plenary, the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which brings together nearly 300 businesses and financial institutions committed to supporting a legally-binding treaty to curb pollution, expressed its disappointment that consensus among all nations remains elusive.
“It fails to deliver the certainty that business needs to mobilise investment and scale solutions,” said the coalition.
“At the resumed INC 5.2 session, governments must make a choice. They can continue negotiating a treaty with universal support but little impact. Or they can agree on a treaty based on strong global rules across the full lifecycle of plastics and with a comprehensive financing mechanisms, confident in knowing that this is what the majority of governments, business and citizens want.”
“There is no time to waste. We cannot afford this process sliding into unending negotiations,” the coalition said.
