Governments Must “Act Locally” After Plastics Treaty Failure
Finance for Biodiversity Foundation says investor pressure will continue on governments and companies following breakdown of negotiations on legally-binding instrument.
Investors called for governments and companies to take action individually to reduce plastic pollution after global talks convened by the UN failed to reach agreement in Geneva.
Negotiations were adjourned on 15 August when it became clear that the 184 member states could not reach consensus on the text of an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, covering both the terrestrial and marine environments.
The 10-day summit was held following the collapse of what had been intended to be the fifth and final round of negotiations held in the Korean city of Busan last November. Despite this further failure to agree, member states expressed a desire to continue the process, which was launched in 2022.
“Policymakers must now act locally to stop polluting. We will keep plastics firmly on our agenda, holding companies and governments accountable to protect biodiversity and public health,” said Anita de Horde, Executive Director, Finance for Biodiversity Foundation (FfB), which represents around 200 financial institutions globally including asset owners and managers.
During the discussions, reports suggested a small number of oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia, blocked attempts to move to majority voting and opposed efforts to include production caps and new regulation on chemicals, calling instead for greater recycling efforts.
“Most UN member countries worked very hard to draft an effective plastics treaty. However, for some others, economic interests are too high to yield. The UN now needs to find a better way of working to protect people and the planet effectively,” said Arthur van Mansvelt, Senior Engagement Specialist, Achmea Investment Management.
Ahead of the fourth round of talks in April 2024, 180 institutional investors and other finance sector firms worth US$17 trillion signed a statement on plastic pollution co-convened by the FfB.
It called for “clear policies and tools” to guide responsible investment across the plastics value chain, reporting frameworks to drive transparency and capital toward circular solutions, extended producer responsibility schemes to hold companies accountable, and public-private partnerships with blended finance to scale innovative approaches.
Investors argue that ongoing increases in plastic waste and pollution are a “significant and growing threat” to climate change, biodiversity, human rights, and public health, which they cannot diversify away from.
Plastic production reached 460 million tonnes in 2019 and is estimated to have doubled in the last two decades. Approximately 9% of plastics are recycled, with half going straight to landfill and around 20% mismanaged. This means it is not recycled, incinerated, or kept in sealed landfills, meaning there is high risk of leakage into rivers, lakes, and the ocean. According to the World Economic Forum, 98% of single-use plastic is made from fossil fuels.
Global efforts to continue
Following the collapse of the talks, UN officials said global efforts to reduce plastic pollution would continue.
“While we did not land the treaty text we hoped for, we will continue the work against plastic pollution – pollution that is in our groundwater, in our soil, in our rivers, in our oceans and yes, in our bodies,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Building on the chair’s text from Busan, the chair of the Geneva session issued a draft text proposal and a revised text proposal, but consensus could not be reached despite intensive engagement.
“I have no doubt that the day will come when the international community will unite its will and join hands to protect our environment and safeguard the health of our people,” said Luis Vayas Valdivieso, Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) talks.
The talks in Geneva are the latest round of global negotiations aimed at identifying common measures to reduce plastic pollution, due to its negative impacts on human health and the wider environment.
Rob Opsomer, Executive Lead for Plastics and Finance at the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, said the UN-sponsored process had established much closer alignment on the need for a comprehensive approach to tackle plastic pollution across the full lifecycle.
“Such alignment did not exist before the start of negotiations – and provides a strong basis to build off going forward,” he said, calling for governments to create the harmonised regulation needed to scale solutions and on business to “continue advocating for positive change while driving action in their own value chains”.
A business coalition of major plastic packaging users led by the foundation has been calling for measures including a levy on plastic products to help finance recycling efforts and a requirement for plastic bottles to be one colour.
“The treaty aimed to set legally binding caps on plastic production, improve waste management, recycling and product design, remove hazardous chemicals from plastics, and create funding mechanisms to support developing countries,” said Joshua Sherrard-Bewhay, ESG analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.
“While the adoption of the Paris Agreement a decade ago showed that international cooperation and consensus was possible on sustainability issues, today’s political climate suggests responsibility will fall onto individual countries and companies.”
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