No sooner had the 29th Conference of the Parties for Climate Change (COP29) ended in Baku than environmental diplomacy is set to meet again in Busan, South Korea, to address another global threat – plastic. Delegates from 175 countries are expected from November 25 to December 1 for what is supposed to be the fifth and final session of negotiations aimed at finalizing a global treaty to put an end to plastic pollution. The aim is to achieve a legally binding international instrument by the end of the year. As in Azerbaijan, the specter of failure hangs over Busan.
As the rounds of negotiations progressed, beginning in March 2022 with a United Nations resolution described as "historic," the zero draft has grown into a sprawling 87-page document, filled with contradictory options and sub-options, with 7,400 bracketed references. "If we only keep what's not in brackets, in other words, what everyone agrees on, we end up with a page and a half, which is terrifying," said Henri Bourgeois-Costa, public affairs director at the Tara Océan Foundation, which has been documenting plastic pollution since 2010 through its scientific expeditions.
To break the deadlock, the president of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), Ecuador's Luis Vayas Valdivieso, took the initiative to draft another text (a non-paper, in UN jargon), based on what he deems to be sufficient "convergence areas": 31 articles, spread over some 15 pages. This document, which has no official status, could serve as a basis for negotiations in Busan if the states accept it. However, there is a significant risk – it could undermine its ambition.
The French environment minister, Agnès Panier-Runacher, will not be in Busan as the Korean host has not scheduled any ministerial meetings. However, she has said this text does "not provide a good basis for negotiations" and signals "difficult discussions" and an "uncertain agreement."
The main complaint is that the document avoids mentioning any target for reducing plastic production. This issue is the main and growing divide between the two opposing blocs since the start of the negotiations.
On one side, a coalition of 67 members, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union, advocates for a text of "high ambition" that addresses the entire lifecycle of plastics, including their production, to stop the flow at the source. On the other side are the oil-producing countries, for whom plastics, and in particular the packaging sector, represent a new source of income. They want to confine the treaty to the issue of waste management and recycling. Around Saudi Arabia and Iran, a "like-minded group" has been formed, comprising Russia, Brazil and India. China, the world's largest producer of plastics, is on the same page.
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