{"id":46330,"date":"2025-08-05T05:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46330\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T05:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:31:08","slug":"the-final-straw-plastic-pollution-talks-get-underway-in-geneva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46330\/","title":{"rendered":"The final straw? Plastic pollution talks get underway in Geneva"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless an international accord is inked,\u00a0plastic waste is projected to triple by 2060, causing significant damage \u2013 including to human health \u2013 according to the\u00a0UN Environment Programme (UNEP<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The UNEP-led talks follow a decision in 2022 by Member States to develop an international legally binding instrument to end the plastic pollution crisis, including in the world’s seas, within two years.<\/p>\n

The scale of the problem is massive, with straws, cups and stirrers, carrier bags and cosmetics containing microbeads; just a few of the single-use products ending up in our oceans and landfill sites.<\/p>\n

Supporters of a deal have compared it to the 2015 Paris Climate Accord in terms of its significance. They have also pointed to the pressure allegedly being brought to bear against a deal by petrostates, whose crude oil and natural gas industries provide the raw material for plastics production.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis: we need a systemic transformation to achieve the transition to a circular economy,\u201d UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen has insisted.<\/p>\n

Circular argument<\/p>\n

The aim of the deal is for it to encompass the full life cycle of plastics, from design to production and disposal \u201cto promote plastic circularity and prevent leakage of plastics in the environment\u201d,\u00a0according to the text being used to guide the talks of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC)\u00a0gathering in the Swiss city.<\/p>\n

At 22 pages, the\u00a0INC document<\/a> contains 32 draft articles which will be discussed line by line. The text is designed to shape the future instrument and will serve as a starting point for negotiations.<\/p>\n

10-day stint<\/p>\n

For 10 days from 5-14 August, delegations from 179 countries are due to pore over the INC text as they meet at UN Geneva, alongside more than 1,900 other participants from 618 observer organizations including scientists, environmentalists and industry representatives.<\/p>\n

A key aim of the meeting is to share tried and tested ways of reducing plastic use such as non-plastic substitutes and other safer alternatives.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the talks in Geneva, the respected medical journal The Lancet published a warning that the materials used in plastics cause extensive disease \u201cat every stage of the plastics life cycle and at every stage of human life\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to more than two dozen health experts cited in the journal, infants and young children are particularly vulnerable. \u201cPlastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognized danger to human and planetary health\u201d and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding $1\u00b75 trillion annually\u201d, it noted.<\/p>\n

To follow the plastic pollution talks live on UN Web TV, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leading the talks in Geneva is Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (or the INC) on Plastic Pollution, and Head of the INC Secretariat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2024 alone, humanity was projected to consume over 500 million tonnes of plastic. Of this, 399 million tonnes will become waste,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Latest forecasts indicate that plastic leakage into the environment will grow 50 per cent by 2040. \u201cThe cost of damages from plastic pollution could rise as high as a cumulative $281 trillion between 2016 and 2040,\u201d she maintained.<\/p>\n

The road to an international accord:<\/p>\n

Five negotiation sessions towards a plastics treaty have taken place so far…<\/p>\n

The first was in Uruguay in November 2022.Two more followed in 2023 – in France and Kenya.In April 2024, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) convened in Canada.Most recently, discussions took place in Busan, Republic of Korea, at the end of last year. These talks were adjourned after delegations agreed to resume discussions in Geneva, under the leadership of the Chair of the Committee, Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso of Ecuador.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unless an international accord is inked,\u00a0plastic waste is projected to triple by 2060, causing significant damage \u2013 including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-46330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}