A few days after the end of the COP29 climate negotiations, the United Nations will hold another decisive summit to try to stop the impact of human beings on the destruction of the environment, starting this Monday. Delegates from 175 countries meet until December 1 for the fifth round of talks aimed at securing an international treaty to curb plastic pollutionbut persistent divisions threaten the possibility of reaching a final agreement.
This threat comes after the previous round of negotiations, held in Ottawa in April, ended without reaching an agreement on limiting plastic production. And days after COP29 ended in Azerbaijan with an agreement that less developed nations considered insufficient.
The fifth meeting of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) will focus on chemicals of concern, among other measures, after petrochemical-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and China opposed efforts to limit plastic production.
INC-5 President Luis Vayas Valdivieso said on Monday that he was confident that this week’s negotiations would produce a treaty or a text leading to a treaty. “Without significant intervention, the amount of plastic entering the environment annually by 2040 is expected to almost double compared to 2022“, said Valdivieso at the opening session in Busan, according to Reuters. “It’s about humanity rising to face an existential challenge,” said Valdivieso, recalling that microplastics have already been found in human organs.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, only 9% of plastics produced were recycled and 12% were incinerated. The rest is still being used, in landfills or polluting the environment. Around 199 million tonnes of plastic are adrift in the world’s oceans, the equivalent in weight of around one million blue whales.
In August, the United States said it would support the plastic production limits in the treaty, bringing it in line with the EU, Kenya, Peru and other countries in the High Ambition Coalition.
However, the election of Donald Trump as president now raises questions about this position, as during his first presidency he avoided multilateral agreements and any commitments to slow down or stop oil and petrochemical production in the US.
The US delegation did not respond to questions from Reuters about whether it would reverse its new stance supporting maximum limits on plastic production. But it “supports ensuring that the global instrument addresses plastic products, chemicals used in plastic products, and the supply of primary plastic polymers,” according to a spokesperson for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
