Groups seek to influence plastic pollution treaty talks at UN
Geneva: Environmentalists and Indigenous leaders held signs Tuesday in front of the United Nations buildings in Geneva, where talks for a global accord to end plastic pollution are taking place, asking nations to show courage and agree to a strong treaty.
Most were from organisations that are part of the Break Free From Plastic movement. They said they wanted their voices to be heard as the talks wind down in Switzerland. Nations are crafting the first global, legally binding treaty on plastics pollution.
“We’ve invested a lot into coming to Geneva, away from our communities, away from our families, because we understand how important an issue this is and how crucial a moment this is,” said Juressa Lee, who is from New Zealand and was representing the Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime plastics treaty.”
They urged delegates to vote on the treaty if a consensus can’t be reached and the process becomes paralysed. Every nation must agree to any proposal to be included in the treaty.
The talks are scheduled to conclude on Thursday.
“To date, the process has been broken,” said Brett Nadrich, spokesperson from Break Free From Plastic. “Civil
society leaders from around the world, together with those
most impacted, are speaking with a unified voice that
we need to show courage, not compromise, and fix the process.”
The head of Panama’s delegation to the talks, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, cheered them on as he walked by.
“We need that all over the world,” he told The Associated Press. “We need people outside of here to tell their countries to speak up for what it is that they’re standing for. Are they standing for them, their citizens, or big oil?”
The biggest issue is whether the treaty should impose caps on producing new plastic or focus instead on things like better design, recycling and reuse. Panama is helping to lead an effort to include plastic production in the treaty.
“We’re going to be pushing until the end,” Monterrey Gomez said. “Because if there is no production, there’s no treaty.”
Most plastic is made from fossil fuels. Powerful oil-producing nations are strongly opposed to including
plastic production in the treaty.
