As the threat of plastic pollution increases, countries could only agree to postpone negotiations to a later date.
Countries negotiating a global treaty to curb plastic pollution have failed to reach an agreement, with more than 100 nations advocating for a limit on plastic production and a handful of oil-producing countries only willing to tackle plastic waste.
The fifth meeting of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) in Busan, South Korea, was intended to be the final session. The meeting was expected to produce a comprehensive, legally binding treaty.
If successful, it would have marked the most significant global climate commitment since the Paris Climate Accords in 2015, but the group of nations could only agree on Sunday to postpone negotiations to a later date.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, was accused of standing in the way. The country strongly opposed efforts to reduce plastic production and used procedural tactics to delay progress.
“It is clear that there is still a persistent divergence,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, told the Reuters news agency.
Panama proposed a plan on Thursday that received significant international support. If adopted, it would have set a path to a global production reduction goal, but it did not specify what that goal would look like. Another proposal made no mention of production limits at all.
The head of the Panama delegation, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, criticized the postponement of the negotiations.
“Every day of delay is a day against humanity,” he said. “Postponing negotiations does not postpone the crisis.”
Based on current trends, plastic production is on track to triple by 2050.
“Every day that governments allow polluters to continue flooding the world with plastic, we all pay the price. “This delay has dire consequences for people and the planet, ruthlessly sacrificing those on the front lines of this crisis,” Graham Forbes, head of the Greenpeace delegation to the global plastics treaty, said in a statement.
“This week, more than 100 member states, representing billions of people, rejected an ineffective agreement that would have achieved nothing and stood before the world committing to an ambitious treaty. Now is the time for you to make good on this promise and deliver on it.”
The environmental group GAIA told Reuters that “there is little guarantee that the next INC will succeed where INC-5 did not.”
The postponement comes just days after the turbulent conclusion of the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
At COP29, countries pledged $300 billion annually to address climate change. However, this plan fell far short of the $1.3 trillion requested by developing countries, which are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
