Negotiators get closer to agreeing on a plastic pollution treaty

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BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — Negotiators working on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution inched closer to an agreement Friday, with more countries saying they want to address the total plastic on Earth.

The most contentious issue of the talks is whether there will be a limit on the amount of plastic that companies are allowed to produce. Panama proposed text for the treaty to address plastic production on Thursday.

Juan Carlos Monterrey, head of Panama’s delegation, said it’s a compromise proposal to build consensus because it does not include a numerical target or production cap. Instead, it says countries would adopt a global target at a later conference of the parties meeting.

Support for Panama’s proposal quickly grew to over 100 countries. Some plastic-producing and oil and gas countries, including Saudi Arabia, vigorously oppose including plastic production in the treaty, calling it a red line. Russia’s delegation has said if the world is serious about this treaty, negotiators must concentrate on provisions acceptable for all delegations.

Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the committee chair from Ecuador, issued a paper on Friday with draft treaty text, condensing the views expressed by negotiators during the week. The treaty article on production has Panama’s proposal. The other option is to strike that article.

“This is great! This is great,” Monterrey said as he read the document on his cellphone. “It is a big show of force, of muscle, for those countries that are ambitious. And also this shows that consensus is still possible,” he said in an interview.

Global plastics production is set to reach 736 million tons by 2040, up 70% from 2020, without policy changes, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Environmental organizations demonstrated with signs outside the convention center Friday morning, demanding that negotiators show courage.

Many of those organizations want a treaty that addresses both the volume of production and chemicals of concern used in plastic products. The draft treaty text does not contain global, legally-binding controls on any of those chemicals. Countries that oppose such a provision, and plastics industry leaders, have said the treaty is not the proper venue to regulate chemicals.

Fiji’s delegation said it would not support a treaty without a provision on chemicals of concern.

“The world is watching. The world sees the divide in the room for what it is,” Sivendra Michael, Fiji’s permanent secretary for environment and climate change, said at a press conference about the importance of production in the plastics treaty. “The divide is between those, all of us here, looking to protect the people and the planet and those looking to protect the profits in the interests of the past and present industries.”

Anthony Agotha, with the European Union delegation, said the “time for freedom to pollute should be over.”

Graham Forbes, head of the Greenpeace delegation, said the new paper is a “weak attempt to force us to reach a conclusion and get a treaty for treaty’s sake,” with the only silver lining being the inclusion of a process for achieving a global target to reduce plastic production.

Negotiators began meeting Monday in Busan. They split into groups to consider text for treaty articles. By the midpoint of the negotiations, none had agreed to anything. They were having long discussions over topics where there’s more agreement, such as the need to manage plastic waste better. And they hadn’t settled on some of the basics of the treaty, such as the scope and definitions.

Valdivieso told them Wednesday night their progress was too slow and they had to speed up significantly.

The delegations will now discuss Valdivieso’s paper and decide whether to agree to the articles. The meeting ends late Sunday or early Monday.

U.N. Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen said there’s still enough time to land an agreement, “if we work hard.”

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