Author: GAIA
Nairobi, Kenya– In the final hours closing a week of negotiations (INC-3) for a global plastics treaty, a small group of mostly oil and plastic-producing countries halted progress toward an internationally binding legal document, using shameless stalling tactics designed to ultimately weaken the treaty. As a result, instead of passing a mandate to proceed with the development of a first draft, a critical step at this juncture in the process and the intended goal of the INC, Member States have agreed to move forward with a revision of the Zero Draft text that had formed the basis for this round of negotiations, which has become so long and unwieldy during INC-3 that it will be even more difficult to advance. “These negotiations have so far failed to deliver on their promise laid out in the agreed upon mandate to advance a strong, binding plastics treaty that the world desperately needs. The bullies of the negotiations pushed their way through, despite the majority countries, with leadership from the African Bloc and other nations in the Global South, in support of an ambitious treaty,” says Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).