OTTAWA, ON — The world’s nations completed a round of negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution on Tuesday morning and made more progress than in the previous three meetings.
Arriving in Ottawa, many feared that efforts to develop the first legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, including in the oceans, would be blocked. The last meeting was marred by disagreements and there was still much to be done.
But instead there was a “monumental shift in tone and energy,” said Julie Dabrusin, Canada’s parliamentary secretary.
This was the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution. For the first time, nations have begun negotiating the text of what is intended to become a global treaty. They agreed to continue working until the committee’s next and final meeting this fall in South Korea.
“We are working towards a world where we no longer have plastic waste everywhere in our ecosystems,” Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, executive secretary of the committee, said in an interview. “The energy is there, the will is there and I know we will have an instrument by the end of the year.”
Here are some of the key takeaways from the meeting:
NATIONS NEGOTIATE
In Ottawa, discussions moved from sharing ideas to negotiating a treaty. Finally, said Santos Virgílio, Angola’s chief negotiator. Time was wasted in previous meetings, Virgílio said, but this time many arguments have been exhausted and it is time to find solutions.
“It’s huge, because we’ve been going in circles during these sessions without showing any direction,” he said in an interview. “But at least now people are showing they have goodwill.”
LIMITING THE AMOUNT OF PLASTIC IS MANUFACTURED IS ON THE TABLE
The most controversial is the idea of limiting the amount of plastic produced globally. Currently, this remains in the text despite strong objections from plastic-producing countries and companies and oil and gas exporters. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels and chemicals.
Graham Forbes, head of the Greenpeace delegation in Ottawa, said that massively reducing plastic production is the most important thing the treaty can do, because it is impossible to end plastic pollution any other way.
Plastic production continues to grow globally and is expected to double or triple by 2050 if nothing changes. Plastic producers and chemical companies want a treaty focused on recycling and reuse of plastic, sometimes called “circularity.”
TREATIES ON THE TREATY WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE NEXT MEETING
Negotiators agreed to continue working on the treaty in the coming months. Expert working groups will gather information and expertise to inform negotiations at the final meeting in South Korea in the fall.
Without this preparation work between meetings, it would have been daunting to complete the negotiations this year.
The topics they will work on between sessions are an indication of their priorities for the final round of discussions. Plastic production will not be the focus of the working groups. Instead, they will focus on how to finance treaty implementation, assess chemicals of concern in plastic products, and examine how products are designed.
MANY HAVE WITNESSED PLASTIC POLLUTION
Waste pickers have been on the front lines for decades trying to solve plastic pollution, said John Chweya, a 33-year-old waste picker representing Kenya’s waste pickers.
They collect, sort, recycle and sell plastics that would otherwise accumulate or be burned. They are exposed to hazardous materials and can suffer from respiratory illnesses, skin infections and other illnesses. They want a treaty that recognizes the role they play and helps waste pickers transition to more secure jobs.
“We looked at this problem as this treaty is trying to solve our lives,” Chweya said.
In Malawi, Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa sees plastic bags littering the land where goats and cows graze and people burning waste behind their houses because there is no waste collection. She believes it will take a global agreement for the national government to do more to tackle plastic pollution. Mzumara-Gawa campaigns for the Christian charity Tearfund.
Frankie Orona told negotiators their decisions affected people’s lives and health. Indigenous people’s land, water and air are contaminated as fossil fuels are extracted and plastic is made using dangerous chemicals, said Orona, executive director of the Society of Native Nations , based in Texas.
“We are here to make sure our voices are heard,” he said. “Our communities have been disproportionately impacted for decades, Indigenous and Black and Brown communities.”
NEGOTIATORS AIM TO FINALIZE TREATY THIS FALL
They plan to finish negotiations in South Korea so the treaty can be adopted next year at a diplomatic conference. This is an extremely short negotiation deadline, supposed to correspond to the urgency of the problem.
Canada’s Dabrusin said she was more hopeful than ever that an ambitious treaty to end plastic pollution would be adopted on time. Over the past week, she said she’s heard from so many people that this is what they want — from businesses and environmental advocates to waste pickers and residents of communities littered with plastic .
“We hear many voices coming together,” she said. “It’s a beautiful moment where we can see this synergy, that it’s economic, it’s environmental, it’s for health reasons. And there is this momentum right now.
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