The discussions in Paris to reach a treaty started only 48 hours behind schedule. At issue: countries that defend plastic production.
But what is happening at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, in the international negotiation on the treaty that should put an end to plastic pollution? Well ! Not much ! In 48 hours, the delegates from the 175 countries who have engaged in this unprecedented negotiation have hardly advanced an inch. Negotiations got bogged down in procedural issues. The substance was not discussed until Wednesday, May 31 in the morning, 48 hours after kickoff.
>> Plastic pollution: we explain the negotiations that open Monday in Paris
The temperature can be taken in front of the main entrance to Unesco, which is hosting this second round of negotiations. We see a handful of activists there. They are waving signs asking for ambitious measures because the negotiators have just lost 48 hours when time is running out, says Murielle Papin, of the association No Plastic in My Sea. “We are wasting time, in fact! And it is time that we are wasting for us, for the progress of the treaty and for future generations who are there to remind the States which are within Unesco to speed up.”
For 48 hours, the delegations debated the mode of governance which nevertheless seemed to have been settled during the first session of discussions. It’s almost a classic, explains David Azoulay. He works for Ciel, which is an NGO under international law. “There was a trap set by a number of States which arrived in Paris to slow down the negotiations and to prevent us from getting into the substantive issues. And that, we can say that so far, they have We saw among these groups led by Saudi Arabia, as we see in the climate negotiations, Russia which was also extremely active, India, China, Iran, Brazil… And there there was an extremely well-coordinated strategy when they arrived.”
This debate on the rules of procedure focused on the rule for adopting measures. Ambitious countries want a binding system with a two-thirds majority. The group of the lowest bidders pleaded for consensus as for the Paris agreement. The subject is not closed. It was just put on hold at the end of the morning to finally address the substantive issues.
Two opposing views
Halfway through these negotiations, it is difficult to know what they will lead to. If we listen to the observers, they hope that we will at least lay the foundations for a draft text. The UN has drawn up an eleven-point document with the various options. The countries are called upon to give their position and this could make it possible to draw up a draft which could be drafted before the third round of discussions. And despite the ignition delay, we can already see the major trends, says Henri Bourgeois-Costa. It is part of the Tara Foundation. “Around this question of governance, we find the same tension as that which we already discovered at the end of this morning, with the first expressions of what a treaty could be. We have a vision with, on the one hand, the 57 countries with high ambitions, but not only them, who have volume reduction targets and, on the other hand, those who represent very particular interests, those of oil production, petrochemicals and transformation of materials.
Schematically, in these two camps, we can see on the one hand those who want to reduce the production of plastic and those, on the other hand, who want to bet on recycling and voluntary commitments. The two main lines are quite far apart. The treaty is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.