Petrostates torpedo plastics treaty – profits over planet as talks collapse again
GENEVA: UN negotiators in Geneva have today concluded more than three years of talks by failing to reach agreement on a Global Plastics Treaty.
Delegates from around the world met for almost two weeks in Geneva to conclude negotiations on a new Global Plastics Treaty.
But despite a large majority of countries aligned on how to approach the issue, the talks failed as a minority of petrostates with no interest in a meaningful agreement undermined negotiations.
Presented with a late-night draft text from the Chair after hours of tense negotiations, talks collapsed without agreement on a path forward. An unclear future awaits global efforts to tackle plastic pollution.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has been sounding the alarm about the threat of plastic pollution since 2012 and has been among the leading voices calling for the treaty.
At the conclusion of the INC-5.2 Geneva talks, EIA Ocean Campaign Leader Christina Dixon said: “The supposedly final round of negotiations for a new Global Plastics Treaty exposed deep geopolitical divides and a troubling resistance to confronting the real drivers of plastic pollution.
“No deal is better than a toothless treaty that locks us into further inaction, but without urgent course-correction, efforts to secure a plastics treaty risk becoming a shield for polluters, not a solution to the plastics crisis.
“While ambitious countries consistently held the line and rejected the prospect of a weak treaty, the failure to reach agreement is a blow to multilateralism, with devastating long-term consequences for our environment, health and future generations.”
EIA Senior Lawyer and Policy Advisor Tim Grabiel added: “This time, the petrostates not only took the plastics treaty hostage but tried to strangle it in the bathtub and bury the body.
“The petrostates used every dirty tactic in the multilateral playbook to delay and deceive, dither and destroy an effective plastics treaty. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me six times, shame on me. Countries that want to see meaningful action on plastic pollution need to do some soul-searching.
“It is time to ask ourselves how committed we really are because the like-minded countries seem perfectly happy to drown our planet in plastic so long as they make a buck along the way.”
CONTACTS FOR MEDIA
- Christina Dixon, EIA Ocean Campaign Lead, via christinadixon[at]eia-international.org
- Paul Newman, EIA UK Senior Press & Communications Officer, via press[at]eia-international.org
EDITORS’ NOTES
- EIA investigates and campaigns against environmental crime and abuse. Its undercover investigations expose transnational wildlife crime, with a focus on elephants, pangolins and tigers and forest crimes such as illegal logging and deforestation for cash crops such as palm oil. It works to safeguard global marine ecosystems by addressing the threats posed by plastic pollution, bycatch and commercial exploitation of whales, dolphins and porpoises. Finally, it works to avert climate catastrophe by strengthening and enforcing regional and international agreements that tackle short-lived climate super-pollutants, including ozone-depleting substances, hydrofluorocarbons and methane, and advocating corporate and policy measures to promote transition to a sustainable cooling sector and away from fossil fuels. It uses its findings in hard-hitting reports to campaign for new legislation, improved governance and more effective enforcement. Its field experience is used to provide guidance to enforcement agencies and it forms partnerships with local groups and activists and support their work through hands-on training.
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