A small group of major oil-producing countries, including the leaders of the OPEC+ alliance – Saudi Arabia and Russia – have blocked a United Nations-backed summit from agreeing on a binding treaty to put limits on the production and use of plastics.
To address plastics pollution, the UN convened a summit in Busan, South Korea, where delegates have been discussing the idea of a plastics treaty since November 25.
The UN has said that the talks would be “essential” to deal with plastics pollution, but these talks and the summit adjourned without a deal being reached.
Countries negotiating a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution concluded their fifth session in the small hours of Monday in Busan, with plans to reconvene in 2025, the UN said, adding that “Despite intense discussions, delegates recognised the need for more time to address divergent views and refine the treaty’s framework.”
Oil producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, have balked at the idea to curb plastics.
“There should be no problem with producing plastics,” Abdulrahman Al Gwaiz, the delegate from Saudi Arabia, said during the meeting’s final plenary session.
“The problem is the pollution, not the plastics themselves,” Bloomberg quoted Abdulrahman Al Gwaiz as saying.
Russia, for its part, argued at the summit that efforts to limit plastic production were motivated by economic reasons.
Petrochemicals, from which plastics are made, are expected to drive global oil demand growth in the coming years and decades, even if demand for road transportation fuels wanes.
That’s why it is no surprise that the biggest petrostates depending on oil revenues, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, aren’t keen on agreeing on limits to plastics production.
Moreover, lobbyists from chemicals and fossil fuel companies were heavily represented at the talks in Busan, according to an analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).
As many as 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists had registered to participate in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) to advance a global plastics treaty. That was the largest single delegation at INC-5, outnumbering even the host Republic of Korea’s 140 representatives, CIEL said.
