(Ottawa) Canadian industry supports reaching a deal to eliminate plastic pollution by 2040, but advocates recycling rather than reducing production. The Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault is hoping for a much more ambitious treaty. Delegates from 175 countries are gathering in Ottawa this week to participate in the fourth round of United Nations (UN) negotiations on this issue.
The kick-off was given Tuesday by the chairman of the International Negotiating Committee (INC) of the UN Environment Program, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, at the Ottawa Convention Centre.
“The world is counting on us to put in place a new treaty that will guide the actions and international cooperation needed for a future without plastic pollution,” he said. “We cannot fail. »
The Canadian Chemical Industry Association (CACI) is one of the lobbyists on site. “Overall, we support the agreement,” said the vice-president of its plastics division, Christa Seaman, in an interview.
“We want the focus to be on pollution – which is the problem – and not production itself,” she adds. If we succeed in having a strong treaty that supports the circular economy, recycled plastic could meet 60% of demand in 2060.”
“I don’t think we can just put in place recycling solutions and hope to achieve our objectives,” argued the Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, at a press conference on Tuesday.
PHOTO DAVE CHAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault
Instead, Canada is advocating solutions to eliminate plastic pollution throughout its production chain.
We will have to eliminate certain plastics. We will certainly have to recycle, we will have to do more reuse. We’re going to have to do a better job of designing products from the start to make sure they’re recyclable and that they’re easily recyclable.
Steven Guilbeault, Canadian Minister of the Environment
The previous round of negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya, led to some setback by extending the draft treaty from 32 to 77 pages. Countries including Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had insisted on including their objections to more ambitious measures such as limiting plastic production or gradually reducing it. Instead, they hope to increase it to compensate for the negative impact of the energy transition on oil production.
In contrast, the 65 members of the “High Ambition Coalition”, chaired by Rwanda and Norway, want to tackle the production of plastic and the dangerous chemicals added to the material which can hamper recycling. Canada is one of them, as are the majority of countries in the European Union. Word was circulating Tuesday in the corridors of the Ottawa Convention Center that the United States intended to join, which would send a strong signal.
Several issues receive broad support, such as the issue of plastic labeling and increasing the percentage of recycled materials in the manufacturing of new plastics. Others are still the subject of negotiations, such as the creation of a list of plastics to be banned.
“Can we agree on this by the end of the year or can we agree that we are going to create a list and that we are going to populate this list – there later in the negotiations that will follow, specified Minister Guilbeault. These are the kinds of discussions we are going to have here in Ottawa and until the end of the year in South Korea. »
He hopes that the draft text will be shortened by 70%, therefore reduced to around twenty pages, so that the countries can agree on the most contentious points during the fifth and final round of negotiations planned for Busan in South Korea. South at the end of November. For now, there must be unanimity among member countries, but the question of a two-thirds adoption, already rejected, could then be raised again.
With Agence France-Presse