Negotiators from around the world are arriving in Ottawa for an intense round of talks aimed at eliminating plastic pollution by 2040. But after the previous meeting collapsed at the last minute, countries are far from reaching an agreement.
I just finished two years since the world’s countries agreed to negotiate a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution. The countries are trying to complete the treaty by the end of this year. This week’s negotiations in Canada are the fourth of five meetings, and Ottawa is now at the center of these discussions, influencing what will be agreed.
Plastics are everywhere. According to the United Nations, approximately 20 million tons Every year a large amount of plastic waste is dumped into lakes, rivers and oceans. Plastic production is responsible for billions of tonnes of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. And, as more plastics are produced and consumed, microplastics and hazardous chemicals are accumulating in the environment and affecting human health.
He Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a swirling collection of plastic waste three times the size of France, according to Ocean Cleanup) is a major example. But since plastic is not biodegradable, it does not disappear; it just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. Microplastics are now found in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. They are found in the snow of the Arctic, in the sand of remote deserts and deep in the ocean. Scientists have even discovered plastic particles in breast milk and in fetuses.
Just this week in Ottawa, 2.8 tons of plastic It is expected to fall on the city, according to the Minderoo Foundation, an Australia-based charity.
“We are starting to drown in plastics. We see it everywhere and production levels are increasing every year,” said Karen Wirsig, senior director of the plastics program at Environmental Defence. “So the longer we take to address this issue, with this global plastic pollution crisis, the more plastics will accumulate.”
The last round of discussions held in November in Kenya failed to achieve a number of key objectives. There was no first draft agreement nor plans to continue talking between meetings. That means countries are heading into this week with what’s called a “Zero Draft” – essentially a long text of placeholder options. The goal is to reduce it to something usable.
If countries are to meet their goal of agreeing a global plastics treaty by the end of this year, tremendous progress will need to be made this week before Canada passes the tariffs on to South Korea, which will host the fifth and final round. of negotiations. later this year.
Negotiators from around the world are arriving in Ottawa for an intense round of talks aimed at eliminating plastic pollution by 2040. But after a previous meeting collapsed at the last minute, the countries are far from reaching an agreement.
“I hope we can deliver to South Korea a text that is about 70 percent agreed upon. It could be a little more, it could be a little less, but it is a text that has already been largely agreed upon,” said Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault. Canadian National Observer in an interview prior to the meetings.
In recent years, Guilbeault has earned a reputation in international climate and environmental diplomacy as someone who can overcome gridlock. Two years ago he was instrumental in helping launch a loss and damage fund at the United Nations climate negotiations, and hosted countries in Montreal to help reach a major nature protection pact. Now his attention is focused on ending plastic pollution.
“We have agreed on what we want to do and now we have to try to agree on what we are doing, and [that’s] often where the rubber hits the road,” he said. “Despite significant international tensions, on these environmental issues we have been able to put aside our differences and find common ground, so I am optimistic that we will be able to do that in Ottawa.”
The world is “on the verge of achieving a fair and ambitious treaty,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. But for the treaty to be ambitious, it needs to have several elements, she said. She should:
- Have clear goals with timelines.
- Recognize that single-use and short-lived plastics must be eliminated.
- Recognize that existing products must be redesigned to stop plastic production.
- Involve plastic producers by assuming greater responsibility for their environmental impact.
- Strengthen recycling.
- Address harmful chemicals.
- Require countries to report transparently on their progress.
- Include agreements on how to finance the reduction of plastic waste.
- Include a just transition for waste pickers and affected communities.
- Address “legacy” waste, referring to plastic waste that already exists and will continue to wash up on shores long after plastic production is drastically reduced.
“These are the items I want to see movement on in the coming days,” he said. “This is what we need to focus on in order to deliver what we promised.”
Greenpeace and other environmental groups in the “Free yourself from plastic movement” are vocation for countries to adopt a legally binding target to reduce plastic production by 75 percent by 2040 and completely eliminate plastic pollution. The groups also call for banning single-use plastics, ensuring a just transition, and rooting the treaty in human rights to help reduce inequality and promote human health.
It remains to be seen what exactly countries will agree to, but overall, the purpose of the Ottawa negotiations will be for countries to identify “landing zones” for the eventual treaty.
“In my experience, with such complex processes, you need to start building consensus in the areas where we are closest to each other, and then gradually build trust and momentum to address the most difficult issues,” said the executive vice president. of the European Commission, Maroš. Šefčovič said Canadian National Observer.
Šefčovič said he hopes it will be easier to reach an agreement on recycling issues, eliminating single-use plastics and tightening the responsibilities of plastic producers to mitigate their environmental impact. One of the most difficult discussions to have is about the link between increased plastic production and increased plastic pollution.
“I think this will be the hardest nut to crack,” he said. The best way to address the problem of plastic pollution is to curb production, he added. It will not be enough to recycle plastic waste if more plastic is produced every year.
The prospect of limiting plastic production is intensely political and will likely face pushback this week. Major oil and gas producing countries such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States and others want to continue selling plastics to the world. In the last meeting, they were the countries that added a less ambitious text to the draft to be negotiated, Wirsig stated.
“We need to move beyond the dilatory and, frankly, delaying tactics put forward by a small number of countries that are clearly not interested in having a treaty to eliminate plastic pollution,” he said. Wirsig said oil and gas companies are eyeing the plastics industry as a key source of new revenue as demand for fossil fuels falls as transportation and home heating switch to electricity.
Paris versus Montreal
Crafting a treaty that can eliminate plastic pollution in just over 15 years will be a monumental challenge, but models exist. The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 to address global warming, is a potential option, but close observers of climate and environmental diplomacy warn that the landmark treaty has major flaws that must be avoided.
The Paris Agreement gained support from all countries on the need to limit global warming, but it lacked teeth. There is no enforcement mechanism, meaning emissions reductions remain voluntary.
“We see what happens with the Paris accords… people say some good things, people say some bad things and the Earth continues to warm,” Wirsig said. “If we do the same with plastics, we will get the same result.”
Crafting a treaty that drastically reduces plastic production will require looking to the Montreal Protocol for inspiration, Wirsig said.
The Montreal Protocol, agreed to in 1987, is an agreement that regulates the production and use of nearly 100 chemicals that damage the ozone layer. The treaty includes a list of chemicals that have been phased out and, thanks to the treaty, the ozone layer is on the way to recovery within decades.
Instead of getting all countries to agree to a goal, like the Paris Agreement, the Montreal Protocol started with firm measures that a smaller number of countries could accept, Wirsig explained.
“What you get from those two different starting points is the result we see,” he said.
In other words, “start with ambition, maintain it, implement the right measures, and over time, the laggards will follow,” Wirsig said.