Different nations of the world has wrapped up the fifth UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting intended to yield a legally binding global treaty in Busan, South Korea. It was meant to be the final one.
However, countries remained far apart on the basic scope of a treaty and could agree only to postpone key decisions and resume talks, dubbed INC 5.2, to a later date.
"It is clear that there is still persisting divergence," said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme.
Greenpeace said it escalated its pressure on 30 November by sending four international activists to Daesan, South Korea, who boarded a tanker headed into port to load chemicals used to make plastics.
Graham Forbes, who leads the Greenpeace delegation in Busan, said the action is meant to remind world leaders they have a clear choice: Deliver a treaty that protects people and the planet, or side with industry and sacrifice the health of every living person and future generations.
The most divisive issues included capping plastic production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and financing to help developing countries implement the treaty.
An option proposed by Panama, backed by more than 100 countries, would have created a path for a global plastic production reduction target, while another proposal did not include production caps.
The fault lines were apparent in a revised document released on Sunday by the meeting’s chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso, which may form the basis of a treaty, but remained riddled with options on the most sensitive issues.
"A treaty that … only relies on voluntary measures would not be acceptable," said Juliet Kabera, director general of Rwanda’s Environment Management Authority.
"It is time we take it seriously and negotiate a treaty that is fit for purpose and not built to fail."
A small number of petrochemical-producing nations, such as Saudi Arabia, have strongly opposed efforts to reduce plastic production and have tried to use procedural tactics to delay negotiations.
"There was never any consensus," said Saudi Arabian delegate Abdulrahman Al Gwaiz. "There are a couple of articles that somehow seem to make it (into the document) despite our continued insistence that they are not within the scope."
Here’s what to know about plastics:
- Every year, the world produces more than 400 million tons of new plastic
- The use of plastics has quadrupled over the past 30 years. Plastic is ubiquitous. And every day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes, the UN said. Most nations agreed to make the first global, legally binding plastic pollution accord, including in the oceans, by the end of 2024.
- Plastic production could climb about 70 percent by 2040 without policy changes
- The production and use of plastics globally is set to reach 736 million tons by 2040, according to the intergovernmental Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
- Panama is leading an effort to address the exponential growth of plastic production as part of the treaty, supported by more than 100 countries. There’s just too much plastic, said Juan Carlos Monterrey, head of Panama’s delegation.
"If we don’t have production in this treaty, it is not only going to be horribly sad, but the treaty may as well be called the greenwashing recycling treaty, not the plastics treaty," he said in an interview. "Because the problem is not going to be fixed." - China was by far the biggest exporter of plastic products in 2023, followed by Germany and the U.S., according to the Plastics Industry Association. Together, the three nations account for 33 percent of the total global plastics trade, the association said.
- The United States supports having an article in the treaty that addresses supply, or plastic production, a senior member of the U.S. delegation told The Associated Press.