Nearly 200 countries (with 2,000 participants in total) gathered in Paris for the second meeting of the United Nations since Monday. world summit aimed at ending or at least drastically reducing the current situation plastic pollution. It is a problem that is getting out of control at a rate of 430 million tons per year. However, the road to an international agreement on plastic waste does not look easy, as the following shows. Opposing views at this meeting.
This is the second of five summits scheduled to reach a global agreement, after the first in Uruguay six months ago. The goal is to complete negotiations by the end of 2024 through a global pact covering all countries.
The first meeting in Uruguay has already served to create more or less two opposing sides: the defenders. a global and common agreement for all countries (a position led by the countries that make up the High Ambition Coalition) and advocates of differentiated laws for each country according to their circumstances, a position also advocated by the major plastics manufacturers, the United States or China. sector as industry.
In this second meeting, a new source of contention emerges between the Norwegian or Rwanda-led High Ambition front and those seeking less drastic solutions, along with inconsistencies over voting method and other official issues. first bet measures to directly limit plastic production and the manufacture of containers, packaging and other articles made with this material. It is the most effective and practical way to guarantee the reduction of waste generation.
This position is advocated by nearly 40 countries, which also support a binding standard for all countries in the world, emphasizing the effects of such pollution on human health and the destruction of ecosystems.
Major producers oppose the reduction of production
Instead, the US, China, and oil-producing Arab countries advocate recycling rather than reducing plastic production.. These countries advocate the “social good” that makes up this material in many uses, as they advocated in the negotiations. Therefore, although they accept that the existing pollution, which is completely out of control, must be brought under control, these countries want recycling mechanisms to be intensified but not to limit production.
Humanity produces 430 million tons of plastic each year, and two-thirds of that is disposables.
Right now, One of the main proponents of this position, the USA is the largest consumer of plastics on the planet.At 300 kilos per person and year, this is directly double that recorded in Europe. Therefore, the industry has a very important weight there.
The International Council of Chemical Societies, the World Plastics Council, the American Council of Chemistry and other companies that manufacture, use and recycle plastic say they want a deal that eliminates plastic pollution but also “sustains” plastic pollution. social benefits of plastic”. They argue that modern plastic materials are used around the world to create essential and often life-saving products.
Countries in the High Ambitious Coalition want a legally binding document to be passed by the end of next year to end plastic pollution by 2040.
“Leave the industry out of the negotiations”
At the opening of this world summit, the demonstrators, who were demonstrating in front of the headquarters, held banners demanding “leave the industry out of the negotiations”, thinking that they could not be a part of both the problem and the solution at the same time.
At the opening of the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron, “End the globalizing and unsustainable model” In a video message at the beginning of the meeting, he warned about the production and consumption of plastics and warned that it was a “time bomb”.
“The first goal should be to reduce the production of new plastics. “Ban immediately the products that pollute the environment the most and are the most dangerous for health, such as single-use plastics and disposable plastics,” said Macron.
Humanity produces more than 430 million tons of plastic per yearAccording to the United Nations Environment Program, two-thirds of these are short-lived products that soon become waste, end up in the ocean and often enter the human food chain. In addition, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, about half of plastic waste produced globally will go to landfills and will triple by 2060, with less than one-fifth actually being recycled.
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