New Delhi: The 5th Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to Develop an International Legally Binding Instrument on Plastic Pollution in Busan failed to agree on developing a treaty, pushing talks to another INC session in 2025.
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The text still has brackets…we have made tangible moves and I hope the committee can agree to use the draft text as starting point and basis of negotiation,” said Luis Vayas Valdivieso, chair of INC 5.
Some developing nations including India and China opposed curbing primary polymer production, seeking instead to focus on plastic waste management. “The enormity of plastic problem is such that no nation alone can solve the challenge. India being home to 1.4 billion people understands its responsibility,” said India’s negotiator, Naresh Pal Gangwar, during the closing plenary.
“India would like to state its inability to support any measure to regulate production of primary plastic polymer as it has implication on larger right to develop. We also did not support inclusion of any list with phaseout dates at this stage,” he added, emphasising that the instrument must be implemented in a nationally determined manner.
India emphasised that the instrument has to be implemented by member states in a nationally determined manner, and due consideration to national circumstances should be given. Technology and finance will be key to implementing this instrument, observers said, asking not to be named.
Iran and China echoed these concerns. “Articles 3, 4 and 6 in their totality as well as related annexes are among the most important and divergent issues which are beyond our given mandates. We should keep in mind that in designing the new treaty we should not follow a punitive approach with developing countries under the name of finance or plastic pollution,” Iran’s representatives said.
Observers noted that petro states like Saudi Arabia and Russia strictly opposed production curbs, with Russia supporting the stand of India, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the plenary.
However, high ambition countries including Rwanda, representing 85 nations, Panama, Mexico, and Norway, supported ending plastic pollution. “It is not about commas or brackets but it is about a child in a coastal village who will drink plastic water, it is about a fisherman who will catch plastic instead of fish. This is the most important global treaty since the Paris climate treaty. Delay is death, action is survival,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey, Panama’s negotiator.
The final draft showed lack of consensus on whether the instrument would cover the entire lifecycle of plastics and financing from developed nations. Even the basic objective remained bracketed: “to protect human health and the environment from plastic pollution, including in the marine environment [based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastics].”
“At this point we do not have a treaty. We are awaiting the text that will form the basis of negotiation for the next meeting, where countries will come together to negotiate for the final treaty text whose major articles presently are bracketed. Hopefully sooner! We cannot lose the momentum after coming this far, so soon, in merely 2 years,” said Swati Singh Sambyal, Circular Economy Expert, GRID-Arendal.
“The INC in its last meeting decided behind closed doors that the committee does not agree to chair’s text and failed to find common ground. The chair dropped its new proposed text in the afternoon- in order to achieve consensus, the level of dilution peaked in the text. Securing a deal is undoubtedly important, but it must not come at the expense of meaningful action. In the plenary today, the member states have been making interventions on what their expectations are from the future treaty.
The chairs text released on 1st December 2024 may be considered as the basis of further negotiations. Saudi Arabia has played a major role in pushing back the adoption of an ambitious treaty. It should be noted that the next time we meet to negotiate, US would be negotiating under the Trump administration, strengthening the low ambition countries,” said Siddharth G Singh, plastic pollution expert at the Centre for Science and Environment.
The 175 participating nations will reconvene in 2025 to continue negotiations on the treaty text, whose major articles currently remain bracketed.
