Global plastics treaty negotiations fail to reach a consensus — again

A CBC News story notes that what was supposed to be the final round of negotiations for a legally binding global treaty to end plastic pollution has failed to reach a consensus.

After delegates spent 10 days in Geneva, Switzerland, trying to address plastic pollution, the session was adjourned, with no immediate plans to resume efforts to reach a treaty.

“Consensus is dead, it’s clear that it’s not working,” Björn Beeler, the international co-ordinator for the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), told CBC News.

This was the sixth time countries had convened as part of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, which was supposed to come to an agreement by 2024.

“Issues like production are very, very hard to move,” IPEN’s Beeler told CBC News on Monday, halfway through the negotiations. IPEN is a global network of more than 600 organizations in 131 countries that conducts research to help influence global policy.

“It’s clear [many plastic-producing countries] do not want a treaty. It’s clear the only thing that they would tolerate would be an agreement that addresses plastic waste management, and even there, they’re difficult,”said Beeler.

Beeler says a focus on waste management and recycling pushes the responsibility onto the general public.

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