Paris hosts negotiations to reduce our dependence on plastic and the threat of microparticles

Before the kick-off in Paris of the negotiations on the international treaty against plastic pollution, in Paris, the ministers of the delegations are invited on Saturday May 27 to Unesco for a first meeting in view of the discussions which will take place on Monday and Friday.

Also, on Friday, when she goes on stage, for an event organized by the WWF, Jeanne D’arc Mujawa Mariya is the symbol that everything is possible in the field of plastic. She is Rwanda’s environment minister and co-chairs the High Ambition Group, which wants to get the most out of this treaty. She speaks on behalf of an African country that has successfully banned single-use plastics, considering that everyone is equal in the face of plastic pollution: “Plastic pollution does not only affect developing countries, it affects developed countries even more!”, she indicates.

“We need quality air, quality water and quality soil! And all of this is not possible if you do not put an end to plastic pollution.”

Joan of Arc Mujawa Mariya

at franceinfo

If there is this momentum for an ambitious treaty, it is because in fifty years plastic pollution has become massive. If nothing is done, production will double again in just over thirty years. And future generations will live under the reign of microplastics.

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“Everything we have already polluted is lost in nature”

“Even if we stop producing one by 2040 or 2050, everything we have already polluted is lost in nature and will continue to fragment and circulate for millennia, emphasizes Jeroen Sonke, CNRS research director for the Geoscience Environment laboratory. And that means we’re going to be breathing and ingesting for millennia.” In this negotiation, 54 countries, including France, therefore want to create the conditions for a transition from the plastic era. But this coalition for High Ambition is facing producer countries that risk pulling the brakes.

“China, the United States, Saudi Arabia as well, have a position that is so far minimalist, describes Julien Rochette, from the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations. They wish to remain within slightly broader, slightly broader obligations, leaving the possibility to the States to decline the obligations as they see fit, which would obviously reduce the legal scope of the text, but also its material scope, that is to say i.e. his ambition.” The participants hope to leave Paris with a draft treaty. The treaty should be finalized within a year and a half.