{"id":425568,"date":"2024-12-01T03:16:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T03:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=425568"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Nations-warn-of-deadlock-at-landmark-plastic-pollution-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Nations-warn-of-deadlock-at-landmark-plastic-pollution-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations warn of deadlock at landmark plastic pollution talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diplomats warned Saturday that a majority of countries could walk away from talks on the world’s first plastic pollution agreement if a handful of delegations continue resisting calls to compromise.<\/p>\n

Nearly 200 countries are in South Korea’s Busan for negotiations on a deal to curb plastic pollution.<\/p>\n

But efforts to reach the landmark agreement are locked over several key sticking points, particularly reducing production and phasing out chemicals believed or known to harm human health.<\/p>\n

Over 100 countries back those measures, and insist a treaty without them will fail to solve the pollution crisis.<\/p>\n

But around a dozen nations — mostly producers of plastic precursors derived from fossil fuels — are strongly opposed.<\/p>\n

As a result, just a day before talks are supposed to end, the draft text remains full of opposing views and contradictory language.<\/p>\n

And frustration is growing.<\/p>\n

“The overwhelming majority of delegates here demand an ambitious treaty,” said Panama’s delegation head Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez.<\/p>\n

“If the reduction of production is not there, there is no treaty.”<\/p>\n

“We cannot let a few loud voices derail the process,” he added.<\/p>\n

– ‘Ready to walk away’ –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

A diplomat from the High Ambition Coalition, which groups dozens of countries seeking a strong deal, echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n

“We are a large group uniting around key effective elements, and getting ready to walk away,” he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door deliberations.<\/p>\n

He warned that “some countries” were actively considering calling a vote, which would circumvent the UN’s traditional approach of agreement by consensus and could “raise a lot of eyebrows.”<\/p>\n

It was a possibility being increasingly discussed as a “last resort,” said the Democratic Republic of Congo’s J.M. Bope Bope Lapwong.<\/p>\n

“I think that if we can’t reach an agreement, we’ll be obliged to go to a vote. We cannot come all this way, all these kilometres, to fail,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

“True, it’s not the usual way at UN meetings, and we will do it to our shame — because when you negotiate, you don’t expect to win it all.”<\/p>\n

More than 90 percent of plastic is not recycled, while plastic production is expected to triple by 2060.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have pushed ambitious countries to move to a vote if progress stalls, arguing that countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia have not offered any compromises during talks.<\/p>\n

Neither delegation responded to repeated requests by AFP for comment.<\/p>\n

“A handful of governments… are looking backwards and refusing to take the steps necessary for us all to advance,” said Greenpeace’s Graham Forbes.<\/p>\n

“I think we are at a very risky moment right now of being sold out, and that would be an absolute catastrophe.”<\/p>\n

But observers warned that calling a vote would be a risky strategy that could alienate even some countries in favour of a strong treaty.<\/p>\n

Another option would be for the diplomat chairing the talks to simply gavel through an agreement over the objections of a handful of holdouts, they said.<\/p>\n

But that too holds risks, potentially embittering the remaining diplomatic process and jeopardising adoption of a treaty down the road.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to move outside the framework of the United Nations,” said an official from the French environment ministry.<\/p>\n

“We hope we will find agreement between now and tomorrow and that’s the option that we’re focused on,” he added.<\/p>\n

“A lot can happen in 24 hours.”<\/p>\n

bur-sah\/kaf\/rsc<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nearly 200 countries are in South Korea’s Busan for negotiations on a deal to curb plastic pollution<\/p>\n

-Roland de Courson
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