Negotiators fail to agree on UN treaty to curb global plastic pollution | Climate news

As the threat of plastic pollution grew, countries were able to agree to postpone the talks.

Countries negotiating a global treaty to curb plastic pollution have failed to reach an agreement, with more than 100 countries calling for curbs on plastic production and some oil-producing countries ready to target only plastic waste.

The fifth meeting of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) in Busan, South Korea was the closing session. It was hoped that the meeting would lead to a legally binding global agreement.

If successful, it would have been the most significant global climate commitment since the Paris climate accord in 2015, but the group of countries could only agree on Sunday to postpone the talks.

Saudi Arabia in particular was accused of interference. The country strongly opposed efforts to reduce plastic production and used procedural tactics to delay progress.

“It is clear that persistent disparities still exist,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, told Reuters.

One plan that received significant international support was proposed by Panama on Thursday. If passed, it would have set a path to a global production reduction target, but it did not specify what that target would look like. Another proposal did not mention production caps at all.

The head of the Panamanian delegation, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, condemned the postponement of the talks.

“Every day of delay is a day against humanity,” he said. “Postponing the talks does not postpone the crisis.”

Based on current trends, plastic production will triple by 2050.

“Every day that governments allow polluters to continue to flood the world with plastic, we all pay a price. This delay has dire consequences for people and the planet, cruelly victimizing those on the front lines of this crisis,” Graham Forbes, head of Greenpeace’s delegation to the Global Plastics Agreement, said in a statement.

“This week, more than 100 member states, representing billions of people, rejected a toothless deal that would have achieved nothing and stood before the world to commit to an ambitious deal. Now is the time for them to keep that promise and deliver.

Environmental group GAIA told Reuters that “there is little confidence that the next INC will succeed where INC-5 failed”.

The postponement comes just days after the tumultuous conclusion of the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

at COP29, countries committed $300 billion a year to address climate change. However, the plan fell well short of the $1.3 trillion requested by developing countries disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.