Geneva negotiations failed on a new treaty to reduce plastic pollution

Talks aimed at reaching an international treaty on combating plastic pollution failed yesterday with the failure of the participating countries a consensus on facing an escalating scourge that threatens the entire planet.

Negotists and delegates from 185 countries sought after the expiry of the deadline for discussions, the day before yesterday (Thursday) and the night in Geneva, to search for a common ground between countries that want bold procedures such as limiting plastic production, and oil producing countries prefer to focus more on waste management, without eventually reaching a result.

Several countries expressed their dissatisfaction, but have expressed their willingness to future negotiations, despite holding six rounds of talks within three years.

“We put a historic opportunity, but we have to move forward and move urgently,” said Cuba. The current and future generations need this treaty. ”

In turn, Colombia considered that “these negotiations were always hindered by a small number of countries that simply do not want to reach an agreement.”

Tofalo, a spokeswoman for 14 of the small, developing island countries in the Pacific Ocean, saw that she is leaving free of charge again.

“For our islands, this means that without global cooperation and government movement, millions of tons of plastic waste will continue to be thrown into our oceans, which affects our ecosystem, our food security, our livelihoods and our culture,” said Tuwalo, part of the archipelago of Paulisia.

A group of “ambitious” countries, including the European Union, Britain, Canada, and many African countries and Latin America, have sought to reach a text on limiting plastic production and gradual disposal of toxic chemicals used in plastic.

A group of oil -producing countries in the majority of them, including Russia, Iran and Malaysia, wanted the treaty to be narrower.

“Our views have not been taken into account,” Kuwait said. Without agreed, this process cannot remain on the right track. ” While Bahrain affirmed its desire for the treaty, “Developing countries do not punish the exploitation of their own resources.”

“I feel disturbing and angry,” said French Environmental Minister Anis Banneh Ronache.

It was not immediately clear the future of negotiation. Some countries called for a seventh round of talks, while the European Union considered the recent draft “a good basis for the resumption of negotiations.”

South Africa stressed that the talks “cannot end here.”

The negotiations held in Geneva started on the fifth of August, and was invited to it after the collapse of the fifth round, which was supposed to be the last in South Korea, late last year.

As the states ’positions diverge, the head of negotiations, Luis Fayas Valdevis, on Wednesday, presented a draft based on limited rapprochement points.

However, all parties rejected it, which drowned the talks in chaos, as the “ambitious” countries found them free of any effect, while the oil -producing group said that it exceeded its red lines.

Valdevis presented a new version after midnight on Thursday. Then the main negotiators held a closed meeting, to discuss whether the text includes enough to continue the talks. But before the sunrise on Friday, he announced the failure of negotiations.

The world produces more than 400 million tons of plastic each year, half of which is intended for use for one time. While only 15% of the plastic waste is collected for recycling, only 9% is recycled.

It ends with about half of these waste, that is, 46%, in garbage dumps, while 17% of them are burned, and the management of 22% is raised and turns into scattered waste.

The problem of plastic pollution is largely widespread, so that the micro -plastic molecules known as “microblisec” were found on the highest mountain peaks, in the depths of oceans and even in human bodies.

If not urgent measures are taken, plastic production may double three times by 2060, to 1.2 billion tons, while plastic waste will exceed one billion tons, according to the Organization for Cooperation and Development in the economic field.

. The problem of plastic pollution is largely widespread, so that the plastic molecules were found on the highest mountain peaks, in the depths of the oceans, and even in human bodies.