On April 29, 2024, the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC) wrapped up its fourth round of talks. Diplomats, scientists, industry representatives, activists, and other observer organizations from around the world gathered in Ottawa, Canada, to negotiate. Among those present were 58 members of the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, a diverse group of independent plastic pollution researchers, including representatives from the Food Packaging Forum.
A summary of the meeting from the Earth Negotiations Bulletin described convergence among the delegates on a few issues “including on provisions addressing plastic waste management and just transition.” But many sticking points remain, “especially on whether to include any provisions on primary plastic polymers, how to address chemicals and polymers, and how to address linkages to existing processes.”
Contrary to the previous round of talks in Kenya, countries decided to move forward with specific intersessional work until the next and final negotiations meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea toward the end of the year. The intersessional work will be split into two open-ended expert groups focused on i) implementation of the instrument including financial mechanisms and ii) analyzing approaches for plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastic products and product design with a focus on reusability and recyclability. Importantly, the member states agreed on having observers participate in this work, but the number of observers, the process for selecting them, and the level of engagement they will have in the process is still unclear. Alongside the intersessional work, a working group will be set up to review the text from a legal perspective and prepare inputs for the next INC meeting.
While some see this as a step in the right direction toward an effective plastics treaty, other Member States and observers with ambitious goals were disappointed to not see any agreement on primary plastic production. “This is not only an utter disappointment, but also a missed opportunity to tackle the root causes comprehensively,” writes the Environmental Investigation Agency in their treaty summary.
Some Member States independently put together the ‘Bridge to Busan Declaration on Primary Plastic Polymers’, where they express support for achieving sustainable levels of production of primary plastic polymers. One legal expert describes that “the meeting consisted of little more than a mechanical copy-pasting exercise, in which negotiators converted the “options” they had proposed for inclusion in the revised draft text into a total of 3686 text brackets”, which reflects a very significant lack of agreement across most areas.
Participation of industry lobbyists remained controversial. According to an analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), 196 lobbyists for the fossil fuel and chemical industry registered for the treaty talks, a 37% increase compared to INC-3. This number is three times greater than the 58 independent scientists from the Scientists’ Coalition for An Effective Plastic Treaty and seven times greater than the 28 representatives of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus. They even outnumbered the 180 representatives of the European Union delegation.
Members of the Scientists’ Coalition were busy throughout the week answering delegates’ scientific questions, participating in various meetings and side events, and giving insightful talks and presentations to explain the latest relevant independent science to help inform the discussions. Each morning, the group’s scientists set up an informal ‘Ask a Scientist’ pop-up, giving Committee members the chance to easily engage with scientific experts. The next and final scheduled round of negotiations (INC-5) will take place in Busan, Republic of Korea, from November 25 to December 1, 2024.
References
EIA (April 30, 2024) “Global Plastics Treaty negotiating countries fail to respond to the magnitude of the crisis.”
UNEP (April 29, 2024) “Road to Busan clear as negotiations close in Ottawa.”
CIEL (April 25, 2024) “Fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber national delegations, scientists, and indigenous peoples at plastic treaty negotiations.”
Bridge to Busan (April 29, 2024) “Bridge to Busan: Declaration on primary plastic polymers.”
Magnus Løvold (May 2, 2024). “Dispatch from the plastics treaty negotiations: Can consensus ever justify such wretched brackets?” Medium
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Reuters (April 25, 2024) “Oil, chemical industry lobbyists flood UN talks on cutting plastic pollution.”
Leigh Stringer (April 25, 2024) “Countries propose list of chemicals to ban under the plastics treaty.” Chemical Watch News & Insight
EIA (April 19, 2024) “An ambitious Global Plastics Treaty could halve plastic production emissions, EIA analysis finds.”
SDG Knowledge Hub (April 17, 2024) “HAC ministers call for areas of convergence in Plastic Treaty talks.”
Earth Negotiations Bulletin (April 29, 2024) “Summary report, 23–29 April 2024.”
