Right Now: UN Negotiations on a Global Plastics Agreement
Every minute of every day, every week of every year, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into the sea. Every minute! And if we do nothing, this figure will only increase. According to estimates, if we do not stop plastic emissions, today’s 11 million tonnes of plastic emissions per year will increase to 37 million tonnes by 2040.
Once in the sea, plastic threatens all aquatic organisms, reduces the ability of marine ecosystems to adapt to climate change and affects the livelihoods and food security of millions of people. Please read that sentence again. These are not small things. This is serious, even life-threatening.
Right now, the final part of the UN conference aimed at reaching a binding global agreement to reduce the production and use of plastics worldwide is underway. Representatives from 175 countries are currently gathering in Geneva to negotiate what could become the world’s first agreement on plastics.
The most important issues still to be discussed are
– whether there should be a roof for the production of primary plastics;
– how to deal with chemicals in plastic production, especially those not covered by other conventions; and then
– how everything should be financed.
The financing issue could be particularly difficult, given that some developing countries have significant revenues from the manufacture of plastics and plastic products. In addition, powerful lobby groups are working to protect the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries.
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has called the agreement the most important international multilateral environmental agreement since the Paris Agreement. The question is whether countries will be able to reach an agreement this time.
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