BUSAN: Diplomats warned on 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.

Nearly 200 countries are in South Korea’s Busan for negotiations on a deal to curb plastic pollution. 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.

Over 100 countries back those measures, and insist a treaty without them will fail to solve the pollution crisis. But around a dozen nations — mostly producers of plastic precursors derived from fossil fuels — are strongly opposed.

As a result, just a day before talks are supposed to end, the draft text remains full of opposing views and contradictory language. And frustration is growing.

Greenpeace activists board tanker in protest off South Korea

“The overwhelming majority of delegates here demand an ambitious treaty,” said Panama’s delegation head Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez. “If the reduction of production is not there, there is no treaty.” “We cannot let a few loud voices derail the process,” he added.

‘Ready to walk away’

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.

A diplomat from the High Ambition Coalition, which groups dozens of countries seeking a strong deal, echoed that sentiment.

“We are a large group uniting around key effective elements, and getting ready to walk away,” he said. 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.”

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

More than 90 per cent of plastic is not recycled, while plastic production is expected to triple by 2060.

‘Plastic kills’

Moreover, Greenpeace activists boarded a tanker off South Korea on Saturday in an action intended to draw attention to calls for a treaty to curb plastic pollution, the environmental group said.

Greenpeace said the tanker Buena Alba, anchored off the Hanwha TotalEnergies complex, was scheduled to pick up propylene, which is used to manufacture plastic. “The activists boarded the vessel peacefully and met no reaction from the vessel crew,” said Greenpeace spokeswoman Angelica Pago.

“We painted ‘PLASTIC KILLS’ on the side of the vessel and the climbers successfully set up a camp,” she said. “They intend to stay in order to continue putting pressure on the negotiators to resist fossil fuel and petrochemical industry interference in the talks and to deliver a treaty that firmly cuts plastic production.”

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2024