The fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee session (INC-5) on ending plastic pollution through a global plastic treaty started on November 25. Here is a look at what happened on the third day of the meet. Also read the diary for November 25, November 26 and November 28.
Countries in contact group (CG) 1 have so far discussed product design, plastic products, chemicals of concern and supply. Of all the measures discussed by this group, product design is largely supported by many countries although a handful of nations have pointed out that a paragraph in product design does talk about chemicals of concern and primary plastics, which they want removed.
Several countries put forth their proposals for a global criteria on products and on chemicals of concern.
However, while countries are discussing the global criteria for plastic products, the one for chemicals of concern is being blocked.
Similarly, the idea of discussing supply (production) did not receive a shred of support from the oil, gas and plastic producing countries.
CG 3 has been discussing the issue of finance. More than 100 countries are supporting the proposal by the African group and GRULAC that advocates the establishment of a new, independent, adequate, and accessible financial mechanism to support developing countries in meeting their obligations under the proposed treaty.
Developed countries have together put forth a proposal for finance which promotes the leverage of existing funds, such as the Global Environment Fund to finance the treaty. However, these countries have also questioned financing a treaty whose mandate they say they are unaware of. They have agreed to discuss financing provided the text is agreed to by everyone.
CG 4 is in the proverbial eye of the storm, at least for the time being. It has a mandate to discuss a lot of things that the INC has not touched before, like the settlements of disputes in Conferences of Parties, amendment to conventions and adoption of annexes. CG4, as a group, also has to cover a lot of ground and has made the least progress.
Many countries made strong interventions, emphasising the urgency to address the issue of plastic pollution. Like-minded countries like Saudi Arabia accused some member states of using ‘delay tactics’, due to which progress was slow.
Indigenous peoples demanded a slot to speak in the plenary and made the first interventions by observers and major groups at the INC-5.
The committee denied the possibility of the agreed text to be sent to the legal drafting group, citing reasons that the first reading of a lot of articles has not concluded and there might be a possibility to insert text in the articles that have been discussed, when discussing these.
After the stock taking plenary, the committee went back to CG3 and CG4 to take the work forward. The chair said the secretariat intends all the contact groups to complete the negotiations on the basis of the non-paper till Thursday 9:00 PM (Korea time). The co-facilitators of the contact groups will prepare the draft text for which convergence has emerged. The chair will consolidate the inputs and share the text with the plenary and possible informals. Post an agreement by the committee, the text will be sent to the legal drafting group. The work of the legal drafting group would be shared with the committee for further negotiations.
As the plenary drew to a close, the calls from the back of the room for Indigenous and youth voices to be heard became deafening, to which the Chair eventually acceded.
A weak treaty would be a failed treaty, said Lisa Bellanger from the International Indigenous People’s Forum on Plastics.
Inger Andersen made a brief but forceful appearance in the media room immediately after the plenary. She referred to the chair’s call to accelerate negotiations and said a final treaty should “absolutely” deal with both consumption and production.
Seventeen-year-old Indonesian Aeshnina Azzahra Aquilani urged a breakfast audience to stop exporting waste on November 27. She said her country was a “dumping ground for developed countries’ waste.” She urged the Global North attendees to change their lifestyles and to stop sending their waste to developing countries.
Some 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists are registered to participate at INC-5—the highest at any plastics treaty negotiations to date, as per analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law.
Fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumber the host Republic of Korea’s 140 representatives as well as the 89 representatives from Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS).
In addition, 16 lobbyists were identified in national delegations, including those from China, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, Iran, Kazakhstan and Malaysia.
Total subsidies to polymer production are estimated at US$43 billion in 2024 and US$78 billion in 2050, according to an update to an earlier report by the Quaker United Nations Office and Eunomia on plastic subsidies.
Saudi Arabia accounts for the majority of these subsidies: US$38 billion in 2024 and US$64 billion in 2050.
The analysis found that fully removing the subsidies to plastic production would lead to a price increase of less than one per cent for bottled water and other fast moving consumer goods.
The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) highlighted several reuse solutions used across Asia in a report published on November 27. These include the Philippines’ “Kuha sa Tingi” initiative, where consumers bring reusable containers to buy daily essentials, as well as India’s Crockery and Cutlery Banks, which eliminate the need for disposable tableware at events.
Asia is home to various different community-led refill initiatives and reuse systems, according to GAIA.
In a statement published ahead of a meeting with the US delegation, Break Free From Plastic members demanded the US government support a strong plastics treaty and “thereby live up to the Biden-Harris Administration’s promises to protect frontline communities who are most impacted by the plastic crisis.”
With inputs from Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) and Global Strategic Communications Council (GSCC)