Still no global plastics treaty: ‘The waste is piling up’
At the recent UN summit in Geneva, representatives from more than 180 countries failed to reach a global plastics agreement. Esther Kentin, a lecturer at Leiden Law School, spoke to media outlets on the issue: ‘Human health is at stake.’
For more than three years, efforts have been made to reach a legally binding instrument to combat plastic pollution. Despite all these efforts, representatives from more than 180 countries were unable to reach an agreement at the recent two-week UN summit in Geneva. So what went wrong? Oil-producing countries that profit heavily from plastic are opposed to the treaty. Kentin: ‘Now they’ve finally got what they wanted which is no treaty.’ The economic interests of many countries outweigh the risks to the environment and public health.
Losing the United States as an ally under Donald Trump’s new administration was a major blow to those in favour of a plastics treaty. It is clear to Kentin that international environmental policy in the US and the European Union is coming under pressure. Against that background, it turned out to be a bridge too far to establish a treaty in three years. ‘Some maritime treaties have taken as long as 14 years to reach’, says Kentin. ‘But when it comes to plastic, we don’t have that time. This is an immediate problem. Because human health is at stake, as scientists have shown, the pressure to reach an agreement will only increase.’