Developing nations want 2040 plastic treaty

WASHINGTON: Countries have begun to discuss a future plastics treaty that would cut pollution, some hope entirely by the year 2040, at UN talks in Uruguay this week, with many states calling for curbs on plastic production as a way to reach that goal.

In March, the UN agreed on a resolution to create the world's first treaty to deal with the scourge of plastic waste, which extends from ocean trenches to mountaintops, but there is a disagreement on how to proceed.

The UN Environment Programme says that a garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute, threatening biodiversity and damaging marine ecosystems, while greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastics are expected to reach 6.5 gigatons by the year 2050.

Delegates from governments, civil society and industry are meeting in the beach town of Punta del Este for the first of five Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee INC talks that will run until the end of 2024 to prepare the future treaty.

Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the INC Secretariat on Plastic Pollution, said at the INC-1, that we can lay the groundwork needed to implement a life-cycle approach to plastic pollution.

A life-cycle approach looks at how governments, consumers and businesses can play a role in all the stages of a product's life, such as raw material extraction, production, distribution and disposal.

Several country delegations on Monday expressed support for a treaty cracking down on plastic production, an approach opposed by the plastics and petrochemical industries.

The EU, members of the so-called High Ambition Coalition that includes Canada, Georgia, the UK and others, said they wanted to see the treaty include binding global obligations for the entire life cycle of plastics - including production - aiming to end plastic pollution by 2040.

The United States called for a treaty that ends plastic pollution by 2040, but with a structure similar to the Paris climate agreement, based on voluntary national action plans and does not specifically address plastic production.

Switzerland, Norway, Uruguay and Australia supported the national action plan approach.

Some NGOs that are closely watching the talks expressed concern about the Paris agreement style approach.

We are three decades into the UN climate talks and seven years into the Paris agreement, which has failed to deliver. Carroll Moffett, the president of the Center for International Environmental Law, said that model is one we should be weary of.