G7 endorses UN global plastics treaty talks

The recent G7 summit of major democracies said the bloc is open to a global plastics pollution treaty, giving a boost to talks expected to kick off in earnest next year.

In an official communique as their June 11-13 summit ended, G7 leaders including President Joe Biden signaled support for an agreement on plastics pollution that the United Nations plans to start negotiating in early 2022.

Their announcement comes after pressure on G7 bloc, including a late May letter from Nestle, Aldi and others consumer companies and retailers urging it to support a treaty, as well as a June 9 letter from nearly 50 Democrats in Congress asking Biden to formally back a binding global plastics agreement.

In the official June 13 communique of the summit, the G7 governments said they backed steps to better address plastics in the environment.

"This includes stepping up action to tackle increasing levels of plastic pollution in the ocean, including working through the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) on options including strengthening existing instruments and a potential new agreement or other instrument to address marine plastic litter, including at UNEA-5.2," they said, referring to the February 2022 UNEA gathering.

The plastics statement made up only one paragraph in a lengthy 14,000-word G7 communique, but the fact that all seven nations signed represents a change from the 2018 G7 meeting, when five of them backed a "plastics charter" but the United States and Japan said no.

The other G7 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The shape of any global treaty remains very much to be determined by future talks, but panelists at a June 17 sustainability conference said they saw momentum building.

Dave Ford, executive director of the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, said flashpoints include whether the treaty should be binding or voluntary, as well as should it focus broadly on the plastics chain or be limited to marine debris.

"Right now, they're trying to figure out the mandate and they have UNEA-5.2 in February; that's where the decision will be made to move forward on the mandate to start negotiations," Ford said at the June 15-17 Circularity 21 online conference, sponsored by GreenBiz.

UNEA leaders wrapped up their meeting earlier this year with a pledge to start plastics talks next year.

OPLN and Greenpeace are organizing a yearlong series of industry and nongovernmental organization dialogues on the shape of a potential plastics treaty, which they compare to a Paris Climate Accord for plastics.

A representative from food and beverage giant Nestlé SA told the panel that discussions like the global treaty are causing the company to look at its packaging.

Jodie Roussell, senior public affairs manager for packaging and the environment for Nestlé, pointed to a French government plan in April calling for completely ending single-use plastics by 2040.

That French plan also has near-term 2025 targets of reducing single-use plastics by 20 percent, with half of that met with reusable packaging, and it requires that any replacement products have to be 100 percent recyclable.

"This is visionary government policy that's setting a completely new regulatory framework," she said. "Companies can look at this. In our sector, in foods, we can look at different types of foods that are easily converted into reusable packaging."

Roussell said Nestlé sees a global treaty as enabling and supporting national efforts like the French policy.

"When we look at what a treaty can do, it can set an overall framework, and then every government can innovate with their own national action plan," she said. "It's really about changing the rules of the game so that businesses can respond to the new regulatory landscape, instead of the regulatory landscape of yesterday."

John Hocevar, oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA, believes U.S. State Department officials were "a bit surprised" by the number of people who showed up for public listening sessions with the agency to talk about the potential treaty.

In their June 9 letter, the nearly 50 Senators and members of Congress urged the Biden administration's "full participation in international dialogues to establish a binding global agreement to address plastic pollution."

Lead signers of the letter included Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Reps. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., and Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore.