Countries agree to prepare zero draft for legally binding plastics treaty

New Delhi: The negotiators agreed to prepare a “zero draft” for a legally binding plastics treaty in the next session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), which is due to take place in Nairobi, Kenya, this November.

The consensus has been built during the second session of INC, which concluded on Saturday in the French capital, Paris.

More than 1,700 participants including 700 Member State delegates of 169 Member States and over 900 observers from NGOs attended the session, hosted by France at the headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris.

“I am encouraged by progress at INC-2 and the mandate to prepare a zero draft of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

“I look forward to INC-3 in Nairobi and urge Member States to maintain this momentum. The world is calling for an agreement that is broad, innovative, inclusive, and transparent, one that leans on science and learns from stakeholders, and one that ensures support for developing nations” she added.

On the first day of the session, Member States elected Georgia, Estonia, Sweden, and the US to the Bureau.

Following discussions on voting rights, they also agreed on an interpretive paragraph for the Draft Rules of Procedure that apply on a provisional basis to the work of the INC.

Officially closing the session, the Chair of the INC, H.E. Mr. Gustavo Adolfo Meza-Cuadra Velasquez, thanked the Government of France and UNESCO for hosting the session, as well as the Member States, observers, co-facilitators, and support staff of the discussions.

In its decision, the INC requested the Secretariat to invite submissions from observers by 15 August and Members by 15 September on elements not discussed at INC-2, such as the principles and scope of the instrument, and any potential areas for inter-sessional work compiled by the cofacilitators of the two contact groups, to inform the work of INC-3.

“My appeal to you at the beginning of this session was that you make Paris count. You have done so, by providing us with a mandate for a zero draft and inter-sessional work,” said Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the INC Secretariat.

In February 2022, United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), adopted a historic resolution titled “End Plastic Pollution: Towards an internationally legally binding instrument”

Under the resolution, Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), will complete a draft global legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024.

As per UNEP the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could nearly triple from some 9–14 million tonnes per year in 2016 to a projected 23–37 million tons per year by 2040.

By 2050 greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic production, use and disposal would account for 15 percent of allowed emissions, with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C (34.7°F).