The United Nations on Wednesday passed a resolution agreeing to start negotiations for the world's first binding global treaty on plastic pollution in what has been hailed a watershed moment for the planet and dubbed the "biggest green deal since Paris."
Nearly 200 nations at the U.N. Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi unanimously agreed to create an intergovernmental committee to negotiate and finalize a legally binding plastics treaty by 2024.
"We are making history today. You should all be proud," Espen Barthe Eide, Norway's climate and environment minister and UNEA chair, told delegates as the assembly erupted in cheers and applause.
Negotiators have been given a broad mandate to target plastic trash in all its forms – not just bottles and straws in the ocean, but invisible microplastics polluting the air, soil and food chain.
The scope covers the entire life cycle of plastic and could introduce new rules on production, the redesign of products for easier recycling, sustainable use and better waste disposal.
The mandate allows for binding and voluntary measures and provides for the negotiation of global targets and obligations, the development of national action plans, and mechanisms for tracking progress and ensuring accountability.
It also calls for financial assistance to help poorer countries take action.
The broad treaty framework approved by nations – among them major plastic producers like the United States and China – does not spell out specific policies, with particulars to be negotiated later.
Diplomats and conservationists hailed the start of negotiations as a milestone for the environment but cautioned that the strength of any treaty would only be determined in talks to come.
The first round of negotiations is expected to begin in the second half of the year.
The U.N. has described it as the most significant green deal since the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Member states have held talks for more than a week in Nairobi to agree on the outline of a pact to rein in soaring plastic pollution, an environmental crisis that extends from ocean trenches to mountain tops.
The resolution lays out the broad terms for a treaty that should be finalized by the end of 2024, said Inger Andersen, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme.
"This is a historic moment," Andersen told delegates in Nairobi, warning that the success of any agreement would depend on the final terms that are still to be negotiated.
"As we embark on this journey, let us be clear that the agreement will only truly count if it has clear provisions that are legally binding," she said.
Any treaty that puts restrictions on plastic production, use or design would impact oil and chemicals companies that make raw plastic, as well as consumer goods giants that sell thousands of products in single-use packaging.
Reuters reported Monday that a draft resolution stated that the plastic treaty would be both legally binding and address the "full lifecycle of plastic," which could cover production and packaging design, as well as waste.
However, the terms in the draft resolution are broad and a U.N. intergovernmental negotiating committee contended with countries and business interests that will interpret those words to their advantage, delegates said.
Switzerland's Ambassador for the Environment Franz Perrez hinted at the divisions between countries during some 90 hours of late-night negotiations over the last week.
"This is a division between those who are ambitious and want to find a solution and those who don't want to find a solution for whatever reasons," he told a news conference in Nairobi on Tuesday.
"We have to overcome together the concerns of those who are not yet ready to make these ambitious steps that we would like to make together," Perrez said.
