UN negotiations

Penultimate chance for anti-plastic waste agreement

(Bild: Nandakumar S. Haridas/Greenpeace)

The negotiations on a global UN agreement against plastic pollution are entering their fourth and probably penultimate round in the Canadian capital Ottawa. Delegates from more than 170 countries are expected to attend the so-called INC-4 negotiations on Tuesday (from 19:15 CEST), which are scheduled to last until next Monday. The last talks six months ago ended in failure.

They failed to reach an agreement due to those countries that wanted to continue to profit from fossil business models such as plastics production in the future. This makes the negotiations in Canada all the more important, according to the environmental organization WWF in Germany.

Plastic pollution to be massively curbed by 2040
The UN wants to draw up a convention by the end of the year that will massively curb plastic pollution by 2040. Whether this is realistic remains to be seen. The fifth and final round of negotiations starts in November.

The vast majority of countries support ambitious and legally binding rules, said Florian Titze, WWF expert for international politics. "This majority must prevail so that the agreement is not only in place by the end of the year, but also effective."

A lot of plastic ends up in the world's oceans
According to UN figures, 9.2 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s - roughly equivalent to the weight of 910,000 Eiffel Towers. The overwhelming majority of plastic ends up as waste in landfills or in the environment. The vast majority of plastics do not biodegrade. The material often remains in huge piles of waste in the world's oceans.