En route to a global UN agreement against the plastic flood

Plastic is everywhere - in packaging, technology, cars and clothing. However, plastic increasingly emerges in places where it doesn't belong. In the depths of the ocean, in the remotest corners of our planet, in animals and even in humans, large and tiny pieces of plastic can be found. To combat this crisis, the members of the United Nations have met in Ottawa, Canada, from 23 to 29 April 2024 to discuss a global plastics treaty. The aim is to develop an instrument that can be used to combat plastic pollution - including in the marine environment – taking the entire life cycle of plastics into account. Melanie Bergmann from the Alfred Wegener Institute has been involved in the negotiations from the beginning and was also on site this time as part of the German delegation.

Ottawa - success or disillusionment?

Melanie Bergmann in front of a conference backdrop
Melanie Bergmann in Ottawa (Photo: Privat)

"We have finally set out to ensure that chemicals in plastic products will now also be part of the intersessional work; we failed to get a mandate for intersessional work at the last round of negotiations in Nairobi. However, the new draft text for the agreement will probably contain even more options, positions and more than 3,600 text brackets, making it even more difficult to find a compromise in the time remaining. 

Overall, it was sobering to see how often states expressed doubts about the current state of knowledge in order to justify their positions. In addition, the greatly increased presence of lobbyists was very noticeable, some of whom tried to publicly discredit scientists. Overall, despite all the frustration about the slow, inefficient processes, it was also extremely motivating to see that the voice of science was able to make a difference. 60 scientists from the Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty were on site and worked with great motivation from early in the morning until late in the evening, countering misinformation with 'rapid responses', taking minutes of the negotiations, holding bilateral talks, giving presentations and participating in panels. Many countries simply do not have access to the necessary expertise and there are language barriers. It was great to see that some positions changed after discussions with the scientific community.

Some countries have signed the 'Bridge to Busan' declaration, and the EU has also announced this. They are committed to pursuing more ambitious goals. On the last day of negotiations, the G7 states spoke out for the first time in favor of reducing the production of primary plastic. Let's hope that this sends important signals to the negotiators and gives them the confidence they need to draw up an ambitious treaty text in Busan!"

Melanie Bergmann

Garbage in the sea. (Photo: Thomas Ronge)

Delegates from all 193 UN member states as well as representatives from science, civil society and industry are meeting for the fourth time to set the course for a legally binding agreement (UN Plastics Treaty) to tackle the plastic pollution. The plan is to finalize the treaty at the fifth meeting, which will take place in Busan (South Korea) in November, and then have it adopted at a diplomatic conference of plenipotentiaries. A very recent study by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) shows just how urgent this is. In a very remote marine protected area in the Pacific Ocean, researchers have now detected just as large quantities of plastic waste and microplastics as in one of the largest known garbage patches. They warn that plastic is distributed over a much wider area than suspected and threatens the entire ocean ecosystem. This is also supported by another publication in which scientists recently demonstrated for the first time that the environmental impact of microplastics in the Antarctic Weddell Sea is much higher than previously assumed.

Studies like these emphasize the importance of science in the negotiations on the UN Plastics Treaty: "All decisions and measures to stop the global flood of plastic must be based on the best scientific, independent evidence if they are to be effective in the end," says Melanie Bergmann. The AWI marine biologist is part of the Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty. The network of over 350 independent experts from more than 30 countries supports the negotiations with assessments and summaries of the current state of research to help the delegates make well-founded decisions.

These decisions must not only relate to the plastic that is currently in circulation. "For the global plastics agreement, it is important to set ambitious goals that take the entire life cycle of plastic into account; from the extraction of raw materials to the production in the factory and subsequent use right through to the end, be it on a deposit side, an incinerator or in recycling," Melanie Bergmann emphasizes. For the researcher and her colleagues from the Scientists Coalition and many other institutions, it is clear that the production of plastic must be greatly reduced in order to effectively solve the problem. Because even if plastic production were to be reduced by one to three per cent per year, global plastic pollution would continue to rise, as the quantities of plastic produced will add up to at least 20,000 million tons of plastic by 2040. Where the use of plastic cannot be avoided, the composition must be changed. Because: "Plastic contains at least 16,000 different chemicals. A quarter of these are classified as hazardous, but we lack data for 10,000 of them." In the best-case scenario, the Plastics Treaty would therefore also define a list of positive and negative groups of ingredients in order to achieve a safe composition of plastic products.

Where do we start in Ottawa?

In the public discourse, recycling is often stated as the solution to plastic pollution and consumers are therefore often seen as being responsible. However, researchers see a different source of the plastic problem: the petrochemical industry that produces plastic. And this is precisely the crux of the negotiations: "The current situation is not easy, it has become very unclear where the negotiators can go," says Melanie Bergmann. Representatives of civil society are trying to reach an ambitious agreement, primarily to focus on production limits and the health risks of plastic. Industry representatives, on the other hand, are trying to further increase production in order to keep or increase their profits. Some countries with a strong petrochemical or fossil fuel industry fear for their prosperity. “Delaying tactics in the last round of negotiations have led to a doubling of the number of pages in the first 'zero draft', which now contains more different options instead of elaborated common positions.”

There is also still a great deal of uncertainty about how the agreement should be finalized: Majority or by consensus, the latter would be equivalent to a veto. This question is not trivial, as more than 100 of the 193 member states had spoken out in favor of a reduction in plastics production prior to the negotiations. Less than 15 states were in favor of increasing plastic production. "One reason for the failure of the negotiations at the world climate conferences (COP) is that one state demanded the consensus principle at the start of the process around 30 years ago," explains Melanie Bergmann.

Garbage on an Arctic sea ice floe. (Photo: Melanie Bergmann)

What does Melanie Bergmann hope for from the negotiations in Ottawa? "I hope that we can now finally make a binding decision on how the treaty will ultimately be decided. This is the only way we can achieve a process that works in the long term and set ambitious targets to effectively reduce plastic production and thus the discharge into the oceans and the environment." As the biologist knows from her own experience, this is desperately needed: “My research in the Arctic shows that even in these pristine regions far away from human activity, we find very high quantities of plastic and microplastics. For me, this is a clear alarm signal and an incentive to ensure that we now have a Plastics Treaty that protects this fragile region and the biosphere of the entire planet.”

Our AWI expert