Scientists say progress on the treaty is too slow
The Challenge of Cutting Plastic: Lobbyists Against a Non-Conserving, Binding and Amenable Global Plastic Treaty
“It’s clear the present process cannot overcome the coordinated opposition of those who block consensus and progress at every turn,” Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law, said in a statement.
Graham Forbes, the head of Greenpeace International’s treaty delegation, said in a statement that governments are allowing fossil fuel producers to shape the negotiations.
The challenge in cutting plastic waste is to come up with a plan that gets buy-in from all the countries involved. Russia, Saudi Arabia and China are among the big producers of oil and gas. The US, the world’s top oil and gas producer in the year of 2022, has stated that plastic pollution must be dealt with at every stage of its lifecycle.
NPR’s research has shown that recycling isn’t working. There’s also disagreement over whether the treaty should have binding global rules or be based on voluntary targets. Experts say dealing with the problem will require a mix of solutions, but that reducing production of new plastic is essential.
David Azoulay, a program director at the Center for International Environmental Law, stated that the results of this week are not an accident. Member States must confront and address the reality of industry influence in this process if progress will be impossible.
The talks have industry lobbyists in attendance. The Center for International Environmental Law said 143 lobbyists from the fossil fuel and chemical industries registered for the latest round of negotiations, an increase of 36% from the last round of talks that ended in June.
The discussions over a global plastic treaty ended in Africa with little progress and environmental groups criticized oil and gas producers for blocking a final decision on how to advance the deliberations.
Simon told NPR on Sunday that most countries support strong, robust terms. Some countries call for a looser voluntary agreement.
It’s possible to get words on paper. He says the treaty should be specific, binding, and ambitious. He is hoping that scientists can steer delegates towards a strong agreement with firm promises. Time is what matters the most.
The model, which uses machine learning and incorporates economic and population trends, shows that “we have to be ambitious”, McCauley says. “A low-ambition treaty would be worse than no treaty at all,” he adds, “because then we are pretending we are solving the problem.”
The process was kick-started in March 2022, when 175 nations voted to create a legally binding international agreement aimed at plastic pollution — a problem that has reached epic proportions since the 1950s. Less than 2% of plastic waste is recycled or incinerated, and many of them are dumped or burnt in open areas. According to one estimate, the world is on track to accumulate roughly 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste in landfill and the natural environment by 20501.
The consequences of this litter include: islands in the ocean, reefs on the sea floor and even plastic bonding to rocks in river beds. They are also documenting a large number of environmental and health effects from plastic chemicals and microparticles in the air, at sea and on land2. Tiny pieces of plastic have found their way into food, blood and breast milk, with as-yet unclear impacts.
Zero Drafts and Plasticity: Progress Report on the Twenty-Fourth United Nations Environment and Biodiversity Conference, Washington, June 13 – April 19
The meeting, which was held the third session of the congress and the halfway point towards the goal of finaling the treaty in twenty-four, saw the zero draft getting longer rather than narrowing down the options. The next session will be in Ottawa in April.
Nature was told by researchers that progress was disappointing. “We now only have about a year left in this process and are nowhere near where we need to be,” says Douglas McCauley, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has modelled plastic pollution.
Scientists rallied last week to support delegates working on a global treaty to eliminate plastic pollution.
The Centre for International Environmental Law (CILE) said lobbyists from fossil fuel and chemical industries registered for the latest round of negotiations. The increase of 36% from the last round of talks that ended in June is evidence of governments allowing fossil fuel companies to shape the negotiations, it added. “It’s clear the present process cannot overcome the coordinated opposition,” it further said.