Delay tactics

Slow progress on treaty to end global plastic pollution as countries hold up negotiations with procedural objections

- SIDDHARTH GHANSHYAM SINGH AND ATIN BISWAS

ON MAY 29, when the UN's 193 member-states met in Paris, the task at hand was to prepare a zero draft of a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution. At the end of the five-day meet of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for Plastics, this target was deferred. Now, the UN Environment Programme's INC Secretariat will prepare the zero draft by November this year, when the world meets at Nairobi.

This was the second of five meetings due to take place to complete negotiations by 2024. Such a short timeline made it critical to decide on the substance of the text at Paris. The INC Secretariat will now take submissions from observers and countries on principles and scope of the instrument and possibility of work before the Nairobi meet.

The outcomes of the meet are far from expectations, especially those of the 57 countries-the so-called High Ambition Coalition-committed to a robust instrument that addresses the full lifecycle of plastic. The reason was a set of delays caused largely by nations with economic interest in plastic and in materials used in its production such as oil, gas and petrochemicals. This group has been informally labelled by civil society and non-profits as the No Ambition Coalition.

The first agenda item of the meet-election of a bureau to guide the INC Secretariat in organising future meets-was derailed obecause Eastern European region saw more nominations than two, as stipulated by INC. Moreover, one candidate from Western Europe (this includes US and Canada) faced an objection.