Negotiations have barely begun and are already deadlocked. The 175 countries meeting since Monday in Paris to develop the first outlines of a treaty against plastic pollution have not yet begun Tuesday their discussions on the substance of the subject because of a deadlock on the rules of final adoption of the text.
Saudi Arabia and several Gulf countries as well as Russia, China, India and Brazil refuse to allow the future treaty to be approved by a two-thirds majority vote if a consensus is not reached. On the other hand, a majority of countries defend voting as a last resort, which would make it possible to override a blocking minority. Or they consider, at the very least, that this question can be decided later.
"The strategy of some countries is to delay the debates"
"We are missing out on what brings us here, which is plastic pollution," Camila Zepeda of the Mexican delegation thundered Tuesday morning. "We waste time and energy in discussions that go around in circles (...) Let's get to the point," she said, to loud applause by the majority of delegations and NGO observers in the galleries.
"It is the right of member states to make suggestions" and "we are not in favor of the misdefinition of the consensus of some states," retorted an Iranian diplomat.
"The strategy of some countries is to delay the debates," says Joan-Marc Simon, director of Zero Waste Europe, "because if we want an ambitious treaty that covers the entire life cycle of plastic, it will take time to negotiate." For the activist, "these countries want a treaty, but that only talks about the end of life of plastic, improving waste management and avoiding releases into the environment". Ruling out the issues of production reduction, toxicity of certain compounds, microplastics, etc.
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The Paris climate agreement or the Kunming-Montreal agreement on biodiversity were approved by consensus, like most treaties established under the auspices of the United Nations, i.e. there is no vote, even by show of hands. Approval by vote, in the absence of consensus, would not, however, be unprecedented. It was used in 2013 when 140 countries adopted the International Convention on Mercury, signed in the city of Minamata in Japan.