Geneva.- Negotiations surrounding the international treaty on
plastics pollution have failed after it was acknowledged that it has not been possible to reach a consensus text after ten days of what was expected to be the final phase of these negotiations, a result in the face of which the countries have shown deep disappointment.
In a series of interventions, after a whole night of negotiations to try to close an acceptable final text for everyone, the national delegations asked that, despite this result, the process not stop here and that efforts to approve a treaty continue.
Read more: They said that this diplomatic process must be kept alive and a new round of negotiations held based on the latest texts presented to the negotiators.
They urged that more than three years of work be not thrown overboard in favor of achieving the first global instrument to address the crisis caused by the unsustainable production and use of plastic products.
A draft text presented by the president of the negotiating body, Ecuadorian ambassador Luis Vayas, in the middle of the night - after having held numerous meetings with groups of countries throughout the day to try to bring positions closer - did not receive the expected support.
However, many countries stated that this proposal could be the basis for continuing negotiations, unlike the previous text presented the day before by the same ambassador Vayas, which was considered "unacceptable" almost unanimously.
Despite the efforts made by the Ecuadorian diplomat, the revised text maintained several brackets, which meant that divergent positions persisted on several points.
It was particularly noticeable that the differences largely lay in the level of commitment that was proposed.
For the vast majority, the treaty should establish mandatory measures to curb plastic pollution, while a limited group of countries (led by Saudi Arabia and also including other countries in the Persian Gulf, Iran, Russia, and the United States) rejected this vision until the end and argued that the commitments should be voluntary.
The environmental organization Greenpeace said that the failure to reach an agreement in Geneva "must be a wake-up call for the world because it reveals that ending plastic pollution means directly confronting the interests of fossil fuels."
"The petrochemical industry is determined to bury us for short-term profits. Now is not the time to blink, it is the time for courage, determination and perseverance. The call of all civil society is that we need a firm and legally binding treaty that reduces the production of plastic and puts an end to the pollution it produces," he pointed out.
Spanish
