The planet is “sinking” in plastic: 175 countries meet in Paris to find a solution

stop plastic pollution that’s the goal. A summit of 175 countries and 1,500 scientists kicked off on Monday at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris to reach a future world treaty. But the United States, China and Saudi Arabia, oil producers, They oppose this globality.

For five days everyone will be looking for formulas to “end plastic pollution” when it is found on the peaks of the Pyrenees and the Himalayas. More than 350 million tons of plastic waste is generated worldwide every year. Plastic pollution affects the entire planet and especially the oceans.

Under the presidency of the United Nations, the goal is to reach “the most important multilateral environmental agreement since the Paris climate agreement,” said the executive director of the United Nations environment program, Inger Anderson.

Paris receives the delegates, after the end of November 1922, in Punta del Este, a Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.

The Paris summit will be essential to obtain a text, which will be useful three more sessions to be finalized, until the end of 2024.

“In an international negotiation, it is not in the second session, which has 5 rounds, that is decisive. Generally it is the latter, in which it is allowed to reach countries that have more distant positions”, explained the French Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu.

“A Time Bomb”

President Emmanuel Macron opened the summit but with a recorded message. this monday was Feast of Pentecost in France.

Macron called on Monday to “put an end to a globalized and unsustainable model” of plastic production and consumption so that negotiations on a future global treaty against this major pollution are resumed in Paris.

“If we do nothing, the production of plastic waste will triple again by 2060. Plastic pollution is therefore time bomb, simultaneously with a plague already present,” said the French president, in a video message to the representatives of 175 nations, gathered at UNESCO headquarters until Friday.

According to the Head of State, “we must definitively put an end to a globalized and unsustainable model, which consists of produce plastic in China or OECD countriesto then export it in the form of waste to other developing countries, which however are less equipped with waste treatment systems”.

two coalitions

Two coalitions will face each other at the summit: the United States, China and Saudi Arabia, which produce oil, plastic bottom, and 50 other countries, including the EU, France, Germany, Rwanda and Norway, in favor of restrictive measures and a limitation of the production of plastic materials. At least 600 NGOs from around the world will be watching.

The first victory of the anti-plastic coalition was get the support of Japan, which is the second largest producer of plastic waste. Tokyo wants to phase out plastic packaging by 2040.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colona warned: “Plastic is everywhere. In our daily lives, in our refrigerators but also in our garbage cans, in the oceans and in our lungs”.

You have to set a limit because the plastic will advance. Once it’s in the wild, breaks down into tiny microparticles, which are carried by the wind and will eventually be distributed everywhere. Including mountain tops.

According to the OECD, if it is not stopped by 2060, it could exceed one billion tons of plastic per year. Global targets are being sought to curb this probable production, with national commitments to be respected, including tax incentives.

Reduce, don’t recycle

Recycling is also under discussion, especially if chemical.

“It is an extremely expensive procedure, which pollutes and consumes energy,” explained Diane Beaumenay Joannet, responsible for maritime pollution at the Surrider Foundation Europe association. The factories that will be set up for this will always need the plastic to be profitable.

Therefore they want to prioritize the treatment of plastic waste at source and its reuse.

The discussion therefore will not be on recycling but reduction of plastic waste.

Another topic to discuss will be liability for do not export this material to third world countrieswith less developed technologies to treat them and less health legislation.

huge pollution

Pollution is gigantic and plastic is omnipresent in our lives. The 8,300 million tons of plastic produced since 1950 could “cover all of France with 50 centimeters of polymers or cover the entire earth’s surface with a 2 millimeter layer,” said Jeroen Sonke, research director at CNRS and first author of a global assessment of plastics.

“We abuse plastic because it’s very cheap. But it has consequences for the environment, oceans, flora and fauna,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

In addition to the approximately 8-9 million tons of plastic that is discharged into the sea each year, most of the plastic is stored on land and in marine sediments, a small part is recycled (about 8%), another is incinerated (10%) and is even released into the atmosphere (30,000 tons per year).

These polymers are everywhere: plastic debris or microparticles have been found in the Mariana Trench10,000 meters deep in the Pacific Ocean, and up to the top of the Pic du Midi in France.

a meteorological fact

We can find “on the ground, up to 400 kg of plastic per hectare, with littering,” said Pascale Fabre, research director at CNRS.

The French have incorporated a new index into their meteorology: the “plastic time”.

40 kilos of plastic pollution are expected in Paris today. An initiative of the Australian Minderoo Foundation, which allows you to measure it.