Treaty talks end with plans for a draft agreement, but hurdles remain

Paris — Countries wrapped up the second round of global plastics treaty negotiations on June 2 agreeing to prepare a detailed draft of the treaty for the next negotiating round, with observers saying they saw signs of significant progress as well as major obstacles.

Industry groups at the talks, which ran from May 29 to June 2 in Paris, expressed optimism that the session made progress. Some environmental groups agreed, but noted that oil-producing countries and fossil fuel industries were trying to weaken the treaty.

Diplomats had hoped the five days of talks would produce enough agreement to begin writing treaty language. Country representatives said they would hold meetings to write a draft in the coming months.

An estimated 2,700 diplomats and delegates generally expressed broad support for a treaty, even as they tussled over details like potential lists of problematic plastics and production caps on virgin resin.

Delegates, including those from environmental groups and industry, held talks throughout the week on recycling challenges, extended producer responsibility, chemical health issues, the status of informal workers in the recycling industry, microplastics and other topics.

In public comments during the June 2 final sessions, observers acknowledged the complexities of the issues, even as they start the move to write detailed text that diplomats and others will debate at the next negotiating session, planned in November in Kenya.

"The first draft of the treaty that will now be developed must reflect the ambition shown by the vast majority of countries here in Paris, and include the global bans and control measures that are needed to reduce and eliminate production and consumption of unnecessary and harmful plastic products and materials and turn the tide on plastic pollution," said Marco Lambertini, special envoy for the World Wildlife Fund.

WWF said 94 of the nearly 180 countries participating called for the treaty to prioritize bans or phaseouts of problematic plastics.

An umbrella group representing global plastics industry trade associations struck an overall optimistic tone as the negotiating session wound to a close.

"The Global Partners for Plastics Circularity (GPPC) remain optimistic that practical and effective solutions have been brought to the forefront of the negotiations to establish a global agreement on plastic pollution," Benny Mermans, chairman of the World Plastics Council and vice president of sustainability at Chevron Philips Chemical Co., said in a statement.

Mermans said an agreement can foster government policy to speed up industry investments in green technology, even as he said better recycling alone will not be enough.

"This agreement can unleash even more by creating an enabling policy environment to foster additional investments and innovative solutions to tackle plastic pollution," Mermans said.

"To help achieve a world without plastic pollution, we need more than just recycling," he said. "We support more sustainably consuming and producing plastics, designing products for reuse and recycling, and universal access to proper waste management for the 3 billion people that currently lack it."

Mermans said industry wants to be part of informal discussions that countries will have before the next formal negotiating round, tentatively slated for the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Kenya in six months.

In public sessions in Paris, countries both expressed broad support for addressing plastics pollution and squabbled over the details on how to do that.

Early in the week, Saudi Arabia and other countries delayed the session over how the treaty process would make decisions. Some environmental groups said that was a proxy fight over worries that the treaty would seek to limit virgin resin production.

Negotiators essentially punted on Saudi Arabia's questions, and some observers said similar concerns could emerge from nations again in future sessions.

A public summary of closed negotiating sessions, released June 2 by the United Nations administrative unit overseeing the talks, noted that some countries backed language for the "reduction in the production, use and discharge of plastic."

"Many members supported the establishment of global targets on production of primary plastics, and many also favored supporting and complementing these global targets with national targets and commitments aligned with these global targets, since they saw a close interconnection," the document said.

In the June 2 public session, a diplomat from Iran objected, saying that the summary did not give enough attention to countries that opposed that.

"Reduction of production, that is in the list," the Iranian diplomat said. "Some countries maybe supported it, but my country did not support this idea."

A Greenpeace negotiator said the difficulties in the talks during the week reflected opposition from countries and industries tied to fossil fuels.

"Time is running out and it is clear from this week's negotiations that oil producing countries and the fossil fuel industry will do everything in their power to weaken the treaty and delay the process," said Graham Forbes, Greenpeace USA's global plastics campaign lead. "While some substantive discussions have taken place, there is still a huge amount of work ahead of us."

Plastics industry groups from the United States said ahead of the talks that production caps were a significant issue for them.

An executive with the American Chemistry Council said in a statement that the talks showed common ground to move ahead.

"The negotiations underscored that there is significant alignment on the need for an agreement to accelerate circularity of plastics, unleash innovation, promote sustainable consumption and production of plastics, encourage design for circularity, and help build and sustain waste management systems around the world, all based on the unique needs and circumstances of each country," said Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics at Washington-based ACC.