After more than two years of negotiations, participating countries have failed to reach a landmark agreement on tackling plastic pollution.

More than 200 nations met in South Korea last week for what was meant to be a final round of talks on addressing global plastic pollution.

But deep divisions remained between the almost 100 ‘high ambition’ countries calling for plastic to be phased out, and oil-producing nations who warned this would affect the world’s development.

“The objective of this treaty is to end plastic pollution not plastic itself, plastic has brought immense benefit to societies worldwide,” said the Kuwait negotiators in the final hours of discussions.

In 2022, it was agreed by most of the world’s nations that a global treaty was necessary to tackle the critical issue of plastic pollution, in particular the impacts on the marine environment. It was agreed that this treaty should be completed within two years given the extreme urgency of the problem.

According to United Nations estimates, since 1950, more than eight billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, with less than 10% of it recycled.

The staggering rise in plastic production can be linked directly to human population growth and has led to millions of tonnes of plastic entering the world’s oceans and seas, posing serious risks to wildlife and their environment. Millions of fish, whales and birds become injured or killed every year after ingesting plastic or becoming entangled in plastic debris.

Plastic is mostly produced from fossil fuels and is currently estimated to be responsible for 5% of global carbon emissions, so efforts to restrict the production of plastic would also be aligned with efforts to tackle climate change.

The meeting in Busan, South Korea, was intended to be the final round of negotiations. But after late night talks, countries were unable to resolve their differences, missing the agreed two-year deadline.

The key split was around Article 6 – whether there should be a commitment to cutting the amount of plastic produced, or just a drive to reduce plastic waste by increasing efforts to recycle.

A group of 95 countries, including the UK, European Union countries, African and South American nations, have called for Article 6 to be a legally binding pledge to reduce production levels.

Mexico’s chief negotiator, Camila Zepeda, who spoke on behalf of this group said: “We carry the weight of expectations of our citizens who are counting on us to protect them and the environment, to protect it from the plastic pollution crisis. We must do everything in our power to meet this expectation.”

Although Zepeda’s words were met with strong applause, there was a strong push-back from a group of oil-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and Russia.

“Attempting to phase out plastic rather than addressing the issue of plastic production risks undermining global progress and exacerbating economic inequality,” said Salman Alajmi, a delegate from Kuwait.

Environmental scientists and organisations expressed their deep disappointment over the collapse of the talks, raising concerns about the influence of the fossil fuel industry.

In a statement to the BBC, Eirik Lindebjerg, global plastics policy manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said that the group of 95 supportive countries should go ahead with their own treaty.

“I think the political reality is that most countries in the world want this – that is the positive thing we can take from this,” said Lindebjerg. “Those countries shouldn’t accept anything less than what they are asking for, there are already so many that a treaty would have a massive impact on ending plastic pollution and that option should be on the table.”

Given the connection between consumerism and oil production, many are also left wondering if a reduction in fossil fuel production is even possible while the global human population continues to grow.

Submitted by Friends of Retha


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