Masked Industry Lobbyists sang the praises of plastic from the airport to the streets of Canada, while Human Rights Defenders marched to End the Plastic Era!
By Merrisa Naidoo, GAIA’s Africa Plastic Campaigner.
Amidst the pride of the maple leaf, the vision for the 4th session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC4), to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment which took place from 23 to 29 April 2024 at the Shaw Center in Ottawa, Canada; was more clear than ever despite a year long of stalled negotiations. The positive momentum for the INC4 was set in the opening remarks of the new INC Chair, Ambassador Luis Vayas, “Our job now is to advance the revised Zero Draft text towards a treaty that is committed to addressing the urgency of Ending Plastic Pollution in the spirit of multilateralism and good faith and recognising that plastic pollution does not respect national boundaries and does not pick or choose who to contaminate.”
We were off to a good start on Day 1 of the INC4, with many regional groupings following the positive momentum of the INC Chair, recognizing that we have a very short time until the adoption of treaty and emphasising in their opening statements; the importance of the INC4 to make huge strides in refining the revised Zero Draft text aiming for it finalisation by INC-5 to once and for all End Plastic Pollution; welcoming the mandate for formal intersessional work to find common ground on obligatory measures, bans and phaseouts of the most problematic and avoidable plastics; establishing a Legal Drafting Group that will introduce legal weight into the treaty text making it binding and functional for implementation and lastly respecting the UNEA 5/14 mandate. These Groups, particularly AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States), PSIDS (Pacific Small Island Developing States), GRULAC (Group of Latin America and the Caribbean), and the HAC (High Ambition Coalition), reaffirmed that the treaty should be guided by key principles of environmental law that includes a Just Transition especially for waste pickers, Human Rights, Non-discrimination and Intergenerational Equity and respect for and integration of Local and Indigenous People’s knowledge systems.
The African Group of Negotiators and the European Union took the lead in reaffirming their commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) and committed to supporting measures to achieve sustainable consumption and production. This ambition was taken up a level by PSIDS, HAC, Philippines and Rwanda. PSIDS specifically recognized that downstream measures alone can not prevent the plastic crisis and overall reduction of plastics including primary plastic polymers and elimination of chemicals of concern is crucial. Rwanda acknowledged that the vast majority of African states support reduction of plastic production to sustainable levels and that the treaty will only be effective with global, legally binding, time bound targets. The African Group of Negotiators also highlighted that over the years the African region has become the target of choice for illegal traders of plastic waste as a global hiding place and for an effective instrument, it is highly imperative to gather efforts to tackle illegal traffic and dumping of plastic waste.
The stealth & pace with which we moved at INC4 was evidence enough of the urgency to deal with the plastics crisis. From Day 1, we entered into focused Contact Group discussions which was divided further into smaller sub-groups that would address different control measures under the revised Zero Draft Text which included everything from measures for primary polymer production & chemicals of concern to problematic & avoidable plastic products to the financial mechanism that would be put in place for the effective implementation of the treaty.
At Least 6 of the 7 days of the INC4 was spent in sub-group discussions to get us to a point where we now have streamlined text on many of the control measures (i.e. reduced number of options for each provision in most cases) and also began line by line text negotiations. However, for every provision most of the text currently exists in brackets (i.e. suggested to either be deleted or revised with additions). Currently everything still stands on the table and nothing is lost (from weaker text proposals to stronger & more ambitious text proposals). Based on these negotiations that took place within the sub-groups, a number of non-papers will form the basis of negotiations for INC5 and most likely consolidated further.
Despite the progress that took place in the conference rooms of the Shaw Centre, so did the looming predatory presence of the plastics & petrochemical industry orchestrate from within and along the periphery of INC4.
Delegations were greeted by a barrage of unethical and unidentifiable sponsored advertisements that sung the praises of how “Plastics Saves Lives”. This desperate attempt at pro-plastic messaging filled the lobbies of hotels, welcomed tourists at the airport on information boards, transported the people of Ottawa in taxis and stalked the Shaw Centre at every chance, whilst critical negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty happened inside. After much speculation around who was responsible for these ads, Machinery maker Husky Technologies admitted to sponsoring the advertising campaign.
In desperation to “remind people and all the delegations of the essential needs of plastic,” these ads included pictures of people with plastic medical masks captioned “These Plastics Saves Lives;” a person drinking from a PET bottle, captioned “These Plastics Deliver Water,” and food covered in plastics, captioned “These Plastics Reduce Food Waste.” The campaign also includes a website, theseplastics.com.
Apart from Husky’s campaign, another business related advertising campaign led by the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada (CCMBC) that has ties to Husky, took a stronger tone than the advertising campaign, employing a truck around the streets of Ottawa sharply questioning the United Nations with messaging stating: “I did not vote for the U.N. to dictate if I can use plastic” and “I say no to the U.N.,” as well as messages promoting vinyl and plastics in healthcare.
Additionally, 196 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists were found to have registered for the (INC-4), a 37% increase from the 143 lobbyists registered at INC3, outnumbering the combined 180 representatives of the European Union delegations, the independent scientists coalition and PSIDS representatives. While industry once again enjoys privileged access to the negotiations and surrounding environs, civil society representatives struggle to find funding, get their visas approved, and even if they make it to the negotiation where their ability to speak is not guaranteed.
However, at the eye of this tactical storm were 65 champion countries that spoke out in support for global plastic production reduction targets, led by Rwanda & Peru and a vast majority of countries that recognise the need to end plastic pollution to protect human health and the environment, a stark contrast to the false narrative that “Plastics Saves Lives.”
As the curtains began to draw close at INC4, the final two days of negotiations were met with both wins and disappointment. Despite, closing with an agreed mandate for Interessional Work (meeting between INC4 & INC5) which was based on a proposal from the INC Chair, this proposal was highly contentious and was what led to negotiations running into the early hours of the morning on the final day of the INC4. As it stands, we will have Intersessional Work on Treaty Finance and Criteria of chemicals and polymers of concern, and problematic and avoidable plastic products, in the form of 2 ad-hoc open-ended working groups. The main issues were; 1) for Intersessional Work on finance; the chair’s proposal appeared to be pre-determining that the financial mechanism for the treaty will be based on existing funding and resources which are not as accessible or enough to meet the scale of the plastic crisis, as opposed to a new dedicated fund which many countries including the African Group of Negotiators have been strong on calling for. However, a compromised text on Intersessional Work for both these topics was reached.
In the Plenary session the day before, more than 50 countries also called for Intersessional Work on Primary Plastic Polymers, in support of the Rwanda-Peru proposal, however this call failed to be captured by the INC Chair on the last night when the topic of Intersessional Work was brought up for discussion again and despite the utter disappointment expressed by Rwanda-Peru, many of the Global North countries breached their support for Intersessional Work on Primary Plastic Polymers at the 11th hour which led to others including the PSIDS to roll-over in the “so-called” spirit of compromise or consensus. The Global South countries who are fighting tooth and nail for a strong plastics treaty were steamrolled by the will of wealthy nations. This debate over Intersessional Work was a proxy for the geopolitical divides that exist between the Global North and the Global South.
A moment to savour in the final hours of the INC4 was that many countries supported the participation of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Intersessional Work, recognising them as key resource people especially to Global South delegations, particularly the African countries and this was the first time in the history of the INCs that the technical expertise of CSOs were recognised as being key to the achievement of the final treaty instrument. However, what this participation will look like is yet to be defined by the INC chair.
In keeping with the efforts of Civil Society Organisations, 29 GAIA & BFFP members from 13 different countries across Africa were present at INC4 to make certain that the African Group of Negotiators upheld their ambition for a strong plastics treaty. Members championed African Civil Society’s messages in a successful Global South Press Briefing and in Conversations with Experts as well in a Series titled: “Ubuntu Chats” with their African INC Focal Points, which can be found on https://www.instagram.com/africaforzerowaste/ and https://www.facebook.com/ZeroWasteAfrica.
To conclude, This year marks the final sprint to finalise a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, through a comprehensive approach across the full life cycle of plastics, as set out by UNEA Resolution 5/14, in 2022.We have the science, the global popular support, and even the political will to advance the Global Plastics Treaty. Rwanda and Peru have co-authored a conference room paper on a Global Target for primary plastic polymer reduction. The paper cites a global reduction target as a North Star on the production of primary plastic polymers to benchmark our collective actions towards ending plastic pollution and aligning with our objective in the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5°C. A new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory also reveals that deep primary production cuts are urgently needed for our planet to avoid breaching the Paris Agreement, at least 11.8% to 17.3% per year, starting in 2024. Plastic has high environmental, social, and health costs and brings limited economic benefits contrary to the industry narrative we are sold on a daily basis. Plastic reduction, in fact, offers greater economic opportunities through the creation of new local businesses and a reduction in public spending on pollution management. We also have the numbers, 144 countries in their submissions across all INCs thus far have ambitiously put plastic production reduction on the table.
It is time for us to start listening to the science and the voices of the most affected and recognise that plastic pollution knows no borders, and it affects and contaminates us all regardless of age, creed or gender. Unless we address the realities of the Global South, this problem of plastic pollution will not go away, leaving our people and environments bearing the most detrimental impacts. As the Global South, it is our problem to also take charge of, this has been apparent in the strong will of the Africa Group of Negotiators at INC4. We need to make sure we do this on behalf of everyone today and the future generations to come.
ENDS.
