‘Paris Agreement on plastic’ stalls with divergence – 05/30/2023 – Environment

The representatives of 175 countries, meeting since Monday (29) in Paris to advance the draft of a treaty against plastic pollution, a kind of Paris Agreement on the subject, did not start the debate this Tuesday (30), because they are blocked by disagreements over the rules for approving the text.

Brazil, Saudi Arabia, several Gulf countries, China, Russia and India all reject the future treaty being approved by a two-thirds majority vote unless a consensus is reached.

Instead, most countries favor voting as a last resort, which would make it possible to bypass a blocking minority. Or they consider that this issue can be decided later.

This procedural point began to be debated on Monday afternoon and remains unresolved, preventing the start of negotiations on a future treaty to combat plastic pollution.

“We are not focusing on what we came here to discuss, which is plastic pollution,” said Camila Zepeda, from the Mexican delegation.

“It is a waste of time and energy in circular discussions that we have already heard enough from both sides”, added the representative, who was applauded by most of the delegations and the NGO observers present.

A representative of Iran replied that “Member States have the right to make suggestions”.

“We are not in favor of the wrong definition of consensus that some states have,” he added.

The Paris Climate Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Pact on Biodiversity were approved by consensus, like most treaties established under the aegis of the UN (United Nations).