Day 1: The Pace Needs to Be Adjusted Urgently, and Gap Still Needs to Be Bridged | CBCGDF INC-5 Delegation Reports

On the morning of November 25, 2024, the fifth session of the  Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on Plastic Pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5) officially opened at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO) in South Korea. As an observer to the INC-5, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) INC-5 delegation is attending the meeting in Busan.

At 6 pm on November 25, Seoul time, after a whole day of intense discussions, Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso, INC Chair, finally passed the negotiation to start substantive issues of plastic governance. When the chair knocked the gavel, the negotiations were six hours behind schedule, and enthusiastic applause finally rang out at the BEXCO, but the discussion time on the first day had been compressed by half.

After a one-and-a-half-hour dinner break, Contact Group 2 and Contact Group 4, composed of representatives from participating countries, exchanged views on the relevant chapters on the management and regulatory implementation of toxic and hazardous pollutants in the plastic governance instrument. However, the actual consultations were still difficult. In Contact Group 4, the Saudi and Russian representatives had differences with the vice-chair of the venue on procedural issues of the rules of procedure. After a long confrontation, the representatives of Armenia and the United States criticized the slow pace of negotiations and started substantive negotiations.

In contact group 2, the Saudi representative criticized the New Zealand representative's view on including microplastics and nanoplastics in the scope of control, and stressed that there is a lack of scientific evidence that microplastics and nanoplastics will cause harm to human health. She said, "We should not rush to implement policies before reaching sufficient scientific conclusions." This argument was immediately countered by many other representatives.

In fact, the progress of the contact group's negotiations was far behind expectations. For example, contact group 4 was expected to discuss four topics: implementation and compliance, national plans, reporting, evaluation and monitoring in a three-hour meeting that evening. However, one hour after the meeting started, the representatives were still struggling with the paragraph of the first topic.

During the discussion, the Bureau lacked leadership in agenda setting and did not effectively guide the topic of the negotiations in a unified direction, making it difficult for representatives with different positions and concerns about different agendas to form a concentrated discussion on a specific agenda. This caused the progress of the negotiations to lag far behind expectations. On the other hand, although a large number of representatives expressed concern about the delay in the negotiation of substantive topics, their repeated speeches actually delayed the meeting and caused a chain reaction of delays. This casts a shadow on whether the negotiations can be successfully completed in accordance with the provisions of UNEA/5.2. 

We do not expect the first day of the INC-5 to go as smoothly as originally planned, but the consequences of the extension of the plastic treaty are unacceptable, which means that more plastics will be abandoned and enter the ecosystem, causing continued harm to our health. Therefore, we hope that in the remaining sessions of this week, representatives of various countries and the Bureau will be able to show a stronger sense of responsibility and leadership, and successfully achieve the milestone of plastic pollution control in 2024.

(This article is compiled from the work records of the delegates of the CBCGDF INC-5 delegation, and is only for information.)

Original Chinese article:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AHQDlqebzlimPXoZCb845g

Translator: Daisy

Reviewed by Sara

Editor: Daisy

Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776

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