UN chief defends plastic pollution talks after collapse
By Sara HUSSEIN
Busan, South Korea (AFP) Dec 2, 2024

The UN environment chief insisted Monday that talks on a landmark plastic pollution treaty were not a failure, saying important progress was made despite negotiations collapsing without agreement.

"It obviously did not fail," Inger Andersen told AFP, calling the two-year timeline for the deal set in 2022 "highly ambitious".

"What we do have is very, very good progress," Andersen, the head of the UN Environment Programme, said.

Nearly 200 countries spent a week locked in negotiations in Busan, South Korea, from November 25 with the goal of agreeing the world's first treaty to curb plastic pollution.

Over 90 percent of plastic is not recycled and millions of tonnes of plastic waste litter the environment each year.

But in the early hours of Monday morning, negotiators effectively conceded defeat, acknowledging that they had failed to bridge serious divisions over the aims of the treaty.

Dozens of "high ambition" countries sought an agreement that would set targets to limit new production of plastic and phase out certain chemicals and single-use plastic products.

That was fiercely and repeatedly rejected by the so-called "like-minded" nations including Saudi Arabia and Russia, which insisted the text should contain no reference to production.

This group are mostly oil-producing countries who provide the fossil fuel used to make plastic.

The disagreement stymied progress through four rounds of talks preceding Busan, resulting in a draft treaty that ran over 70 pages and was riddled with contradictory language.

The diplomat chairing the talks sought to streamline the process by synthesising views in his own draft text, which Andersen said represented a step forward.

"We walked into this with a 77-page long paper. We now have a clean, streamlined... treaty text," she said.

"That forward movement is significant and something frankly that I celebrate."

- 'Significant conversations' -

But even the revised text is full of opposing views, and countries insisted that all parts of it would be open to renegotiation and amendment at any new round of talks.

That led environmental groups to warn that extending the so-called INC-5 talks to an INC-5.2 risks simply repeating the deadlock seen in Busan.

Andersen acknowledged that deep differences remain and "some significant conversations" are needed before any new talks.

"I do believe that there's no point in meeting unless we can see a pathway from Busan to the treaty text being gavelled," she said.

The final plenary of the talks saw dozens of countries back new production targets and phasing out chemicals believed or known to be harmful.

"A treaty that lacks these elements and only relies on voluntary measures would not be acceptable," Rwanda's Juliet Kabera said.

But Saudi Arabia's Abdulrahman Al Gwaiz indicated that production cuts remains a red line for many nations.

"If you address plastic pollution, there should be no problem with producing plastics, because the problem is the pollution, not the plastics themselves," he said.

Andersen said it was clear that "there's a group of countries that give voice to an economic sector," but added that finding a way forward was possible.

"That's how negotiations work. Countries have different interests, they present them and the conversations then have to take place... seeking to find that common ground."

No date or location has yet been set for resumed talks, though Saudi Arabia and others sought to restart no sooner than mid-2025.

Andersen said she remained "absolutely determined" to win a deal next year.

"Sooner is much better than later because we have a massive problem."

Plastic pollution talks: the key sticking points
Busan, South Korea (AFP) Dec 2, 2024 - Divisions between countries have stalled negotiations on the world's first treaty to tackle plastic pollution, after a terse week of talks in South Korea's Busan.

Here are some of the sticking points that led to a decision early Monday to resume discussions at a later date after negotiators were unable to strike a deal:

- Production cuts -

The 2022 resolution that kicked off two years of negotiations called for a treaty that would "promote sustainable production and consumption of plastics".

But what that means has proved a key point of disagreement.

Dozens of nations want the deal to mandate a reduction of new plastic production, and there have been calls to phase out "unnecessary" items such as some single-use plastics.

"Mopping the floor when the tap is open is useless," said Anthony Agotha, the EU's special envoy for climate and environment.

But others, led by some oil-producing states like Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have pushed back against any binding reduction call.

"The objective of this treaty is to end plastic pollution, not plastic itself. Plastic has brought immense benefit to societies worldwide," Kuwait's delegate said Sunday.

- 'Chemicals of concern' -

An alliance led by Rwanda and Norway pushing for specific measures on production, the High Ambition Coalition (HAC), is also seeking controls on so-called chemicals of concern.

These are components of plastic that are known or feared to be harmful to human health.

Any agreement "must contain a clear, legally binding obligation to phase out the most harmful plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastics", Mexican delegate Camila Zepeda said in the final plenary session, in a statement backed by nearly 100 countries.

Fiji's representative had earlier warned there would be "no treaty without a provision on chemicals of concern", calling it "a non-negotiable".

But some countries have rejected any push to phase out or restrict the chemicals, pointing to existing international agreements and national regulations on toxins.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) said its analysis of a UN list of participants at Busan showed over 200 lobbyists from the fossil fuel and chemical industries were registered for the talks.

- Finance -

Implementing any treaty will cost money that developing countries say they simply do not have.

An article on financing in the latest draft agreement released on Sunday was full of conflicting possible options, reflecting deep disagreement on who will pay what, and how.

One focus of the talks has been creating a dedicated multilateral fund for the purpose -- after the hard-fought battle at COP29 climate talks to extract more finance from developed countries.

But the details are proving complicated.

"As developing countries have repeatedly called for in the past few days, the instrument should respect national differences" and "reflect equity and inclusiveness," China's delegate said late Sunday.

- Globally binding? -

Will the treaty create overarching global rules that bind all nations to the same standards, or allow individual countries to set their own targets and goals?

This has been another sticking point, with the European Union initially warning that "a treaty in which each party would do only what they consider is necessary is not something we are ready to support".

On the other side are nations who argue that differing levels of capacity and economic growth make common standards unreasonable.

"There shall not be any compliance regime," reads language proposed during negotiations by Iran.

Instead, it has urged an "assessment committee" that would monitor progress but "in no way" examine compliance or implementation.

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