Days before deadline, plastic treaty draft highlights disagreement

Negotiators face deep differences in finalizing global plastic pollution deal, with key issues unresolved in draft text.

With just two days before negotiators are due to agree on the world’s first deal to curb global plastic pollution, a new draft text released on Friday (November 29, 2024) showed deep differences remain.

Nearly 200 countries are gathered in South Korea’s Busan with the goal of cobbling together a deal by Sunday (December 1, 2024), capping two years of negotiations on a landmark agreement.

Just 48 hours before the talks are scheduled to end, a new synthesis text released by the diplomat chairing the process emerged, littered with competing visions and ongoing disagreements.

There are eight possible definitions for plastic alone, and five options for the meaning of plastic pollution.

No text at all is proposed on “chemicals of concern” that are known or believed to be harmful to human health, and an article on health remains virtually bare, along with an option for it to be scrapped altogether — a request made earlier by Saudi Arabia.

The draft also suggests production remains a key sticking point. Many countries have rallied around a proposal led by Panama for nations to agree on a reduction target after the treaty is signed.

But the draft includes an option that would delete the article on supply entirely, a suggestion also previously made by Saudi Arabia.