Negotiators from 175 states are meeting to participate in a second session of discussions, of the five scheduled, to develop a legally binding treaty aimed at ending plastic production.
Will the fight against plastic pollution soon see a turning point? A “high-level event” to put an end to this scourge was organized on Saturday May 27 by France at Unesco, before the delicate negotiation session which opens on Monday. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, and her counterpart in Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, received around forty representatives of States from around the world to try to give political impetus to the debates.
These will really begin on Monday, with the opening of the actual discussions between nations with divergent ambitions and subject to opposing pressure from industrialists and NGOs. The goal? “Establish an international treaty to end the rampant production and use of plastics”sums up the Reporterre news site. Franceinfo is looking into these negotiations which will last until June 2.
The framework: negotiations between 175 nations
A little over a year ago, in Nairobi (Kenya), an agreement in principle was reached to put an end to plastic pollution in the world, with the ambition of drawing up a legally binding treaty by the end of 2024. binding, under the aegis of the United Nations. After a first session of negotiations completed on December 2 in Punta del Este (Uruguay), Paris is hosting the second session of the five planned in total. Governance issues have so far dominated the discussions, but five days of discussions should make it possible to begin to map out broad guidelines.
“The challenge is to agree on a timetable – 2040, end of plastic pollution –, on the fact that the treaty must be binding, endowed with means and an expert body, and to obtain a kind of Giec from plastic.”
Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transitionat franceinfo
“It is urgent to mobilize to stop increasing this production [de plastique], to be able to reduce and recycle”insisted the Minister of Ecological Transition on franceinfo. “But first we have to reduce our dependence.” However, the prospect of a binding treaty remains remote. “We are still at a preliminary stage of negotiation.”points out to Reporterre a French diplomat. “It should not be expected that the treaty will be signed in the next few days.”
The objective: to act in the face of a global scourge
The stakes in these negotiations are high. Plastic, derived from petroleum, is everywhere: packaging, clothing fibers, construction equipment, medical tools… Its annual production, which has more than doubled in 20 years to reach 460 million tonnes (Mt), could still triple here in 2060 if nothing is done. “Sif we do nothing, in 2060 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans“summarizes Christophe Béchu.
A situation that is all the more worrying since two-thirds of this plastic goes to waste after just one or a few uses, and less than 10% of plastic waste is recycled.
Litter of all sizes ends up in the oceans, sea ice, the stomachs of birds and even on mountain tops. Microplastics have been detected in blood, breast milk or placenta.
Plastic is also a problem for its role in global warming: it represented 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2019, or 3.4% of global emissions, a figure that could more than double by 2060. , according to the OECD.
The risk: divergent interests
The most ambitious countries (54 countries led by Rwanda and Norway, including members of the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Australia and, since Friday, Japan) now want a “reduction in the use and production of plastic”. “To our surprise, France’s ambition is quite strong”book with Reporterre Juliette Franquet, director of Zero Waste France. “Christophe Béchu (…) does not seem to fall into the mirage of recycling.” According to the specialized site, the minister defends “the ban on the marketing of certain products, the establishment of polluter-pays systems, the obligation of transparency and traceability or even the prevention of releases of microplastics into the environment.”
But other countries, on the side of Asia (India in particular) or the United States, could be more timorous and insist on the need to recycle and fight against abandoned waste. “China, the United States, Saudi Arabia have a position which is so far minimalist”, detail with franceinfo Julien Rochette, director of the ocean program at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations. Those countries “wish to remain within slightly broader obligations, leaving the possibility to the States to decline the obligations as they wish, which would obviously reduce the legal scope of the text, but also its material scope, that is to say its ambition .”
Not to mention the position of manufacturers on the subject. We mention here producers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), the most widely used plastics in the world. According Release, “they are counting on a continuation of the current trend: exponential global production (it doubled between 2000 and 2019), still set to triple by 2060. It doesn’t matter if this drowns the planet in waste (353 million tonnes in 2019, i.e. the weight of 35,000 Eiffel towers, knowing that 81% of the products manufactured suffer this fate in less than a year).