Plastics in Politics Live May 2024: Here’s where the UN plastics treaty is inching forward

Diplomats at the global plastics treaty talks in Ottawa, Ontario, made some progress last month, although there are still lots of issues left to resolve.

There was a move toward compromise at the latest United Nations plastics treaty talks. Steve Toloken, who has covered the last three rounds of talks for Plastics News, talked about both the progress and the issues in PN’s May Plastics in Politics editorial livestream. Recording below.

“There was a decent amount of progress. It’s kind of like the backs were up against the wall after the second and the third sessions, where there had been a lot of disagreements between countries about how to proceed with the treaty,” Toloken said. 

Diplomats wanted to make progress in part because of elections happening around the world in the next several months. Also, there’s a growing awareness that reaching an agreement later this year will be just the beginning of a long process that will strengthen the deal over time.

“You’re really going to have a 20-year process where the world tries to do better on plastics,” Toloken said, quoting a U.S. State Department diplomat who talked about the treaty negotiations last week at NPE2024 in Orlando, Fla.

One big change compared to the last round of talks in Nairobi, Kenya: this time diplomats agreed to create two intersessional groups to hammer out details ahead of the next round, which is scheduled for November in Busan, South Korea.

One intersessional will be on finance — how to pay for what the treaty will do. This could include global financial mechanisms, and some people also said it could bleed into extended producer responsibility or even fees on virgin resin.

The second intersessional will look broadly at design issues. This includes lower-hanging fruit, Toloken explained, like design for recyclability and designing reuse systems. It’s also expected to discuss problematic plastic applications and how to deal with chemicals of concern within plastics.

Many differences still remain, including whether a treaty will address levels of plastics production. A new coalition of about 30 countries, the Bridge to Busan, is pushing production limits.

The next Plastics in Politics Live is scheduled for June 11.