Round of negotiations on UN plastic agreement without agreement

Environment

Round of negotiations on UN plastic agreement without agreement

The fifth round of negotiations for a UN plastics agreement has been prepared for years – but now it has failed. After all, the debate is set to continue next year.

The fifth round of negotiations for a UN plastics agreement ended without an agreement. In Busan, South Korea, representatives from over 170 countries met for a week to decide on binding measures to curb global plastic pollution after years of preparation. The meeting in Busan was originally intended to be the final round of negotiations, but due to a lack of agreement, the debate will now continue next year. The draft text negotiated over the past seven days should serve as the basis.

The central, as yet unresolved issue concerns a possible cap on plastic production, as demanded by a coalition of over 100 like-minded countries – including Mexico, Panama, Rwanda and the European Union. Oil states such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, on the other hand, had vehemently spoken out against production limits – and instead demanded that the agreement focus on efficient waste management.

“Throughout the negotiations, we have witnessed continued resistance from a vocal minority of states who are clearly negotiating in bad faith and are not seeking a meaningful agreement,” said a statement from the non-governmental organization WWF.

Greenpeace expressly welcomed the fact that the negotiations would continue rather than agreeing on a weak conclusion under time pressure. “An effective agreement must contain binding global targets and measures to reduce plastic production,” said Greenpeace expert Moritz Jäger-Roschko. There would still be a historic chance for a plastic agreement that would protect health, the environment and the climate from the harmful effects of plastic.

“We have not achieved what we came for,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez of the Panama delegation in an emotional speech at the end of the negotiations, which was accompanied by sustained applause: “Hesitation means death, action means survival.” He was combative: They would not give in and would continue to fight for a binding agreement. A few hours earlier, Gómez had said that plastic was a “weapon of mass destruction” for Panama: “Everything we love is at stake. This is not a drill, this is a fight for survival.”

Almost 200 UN states agreed in March 2022 to make a joint decision to curb plastic by the end of 2024. In total, the agreement was prepared for almost ten years.

According to the UN, around 400 million tons of plastic waste are produced globally every year, and the trend is rising. According to information from the Federal Environment Agency, almost 6 million tons of plastic waste is generated in Germany.