International negotiations are underway to create a global plastics treaty, which aims to combat plastic pollution. This initiative, supported by the United Nations, focuses not only on plastic waste itself, but on the entire life cycle of plastics. The ambitious plans include regulating sustainable production, the design of plastic products, as well as their reuse and recycling in the spirit of a circular economy.<\/p>\n
The decision to develop this treaty was taken by 175 members of the United Nations at the Environment Assembly (resolution UNEA 5\/14) in 2022. The treaty is expected to help tackle the eight billion tonnes of plastic waste that is a legacy of the ten billion tonnes of plastic produced since the 1950s, with 10 to 15 million tonnes of new plastic waste entering the seas each year. This volume could more than triple by 2050. The treaty also aims to control the impacts on human health caused by hazardous chemicals in plastics and regulate the release of microplastics into the environment.<\/p>\n
Progress of negotiations so far<\/strong><\/p>\n The negotiations are being led by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), with five scheduled sessions. The most recent, the fourth session (INC-4), was held in Ottawa in April 2024 and was attended by over 2,500 participants, including government officials, academics, civil society organizations, the private sector, and international organizations. The final session (INC-5) is scheduled for November 2024 in Busan, Korea. An agreement, if reached, will be available for signature during a diplomatic conference in the first half of 2025.<\/p>\n Progress on INC-4<\/strong><\/p>\n The negotiations have made significant progress in key areas:<\/p>\n 1. Waste management: Delegates agreed on the need for global targets for waste management, to be achieved through national plans.<\/p>\n 2. Just Transition: The concept of a just transition of climate change has been used to protect vulnerable groups and workers, such as waste collectors, who could be affected by new measures.<\/p>\n 3. Financial mechanisms: There is growing support for a dedicated multilateral fund operating on a grant basis, as well as for a hybrid approach involving flexible funding.<\/p>\n 4. Establishment of working groups: Two ad hoc expert groups were established to address important implementation and chemicals issues before the final meeting.<\/p>\n Main problems and difficulties<\/strong><\/p>\n The negotiations face several challenges:<\/p>\n 1. Scope of the agreement: There are viscous discussions about whether the agreement should cover the entire life cycle of plastics or focus only on waste.<\/p>\n 2. Primary plastic polymers: Discussions about limiting the production of plastic polymers are divisive, with some countries supporting mandatory limits and others only voluntary measures.<\/p>\n 3. Chemicals and polymers: There are also differences on the issue of regulating chemicals in plastics, including proposals to create a normative list of banned substances.<\/p>\n 4. Single-use plastics and microplastics: Diversity of opinion also persists on the regulation of single-use plastics and microplastics, with differing views on global and national bans.<\/p>\n Probability of reaching an agreement<\/strong><\/p>\n With the hope of a final agreement at INC-5 comes obstacles, such as deep differences in opinion on the scope of the agreement and regulation of plastics. The success of the final session will depend on delegates' ability to overcome these differences.<\/p>\n What next if no agreement is reached?<\/strong><\/p>\n In the event of failure, negotiations should be resumed with the prospect of further dialogue. In the meantime, individual countries could pursue their own initiatives to combat plastic pollution. These efforts would likely lead to regional successes, such as reducing the use of plastic bags or plastic bottle return programs.<\/p>\n If an agreement is reached at INC-5, it will be a significant step in the fight against plastic pollution. International cooperation is key to achieving success on this issue that transcends borders and affects the entire world.<\/p>\n Key points<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2013 Diverging views on the scope and content of the agreement persist, while progress has been made in several areas, including just transition and waste management.<\/p>\n \u2013 Two expert groups are working on key open questions and solutions for chemicals.<\/p>\n \u2013 It will be necessary to find a compromise on issues related to plastics regulation in order to reach a global agreement.\u00a0 Spring<\/em><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" International negotiations are underway to create a global plastics treaty, which aims to combat plastic pollution.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klimaticka-zmena"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}