The era of hydrocarbons has also been the era of plastic, the quintessential material of modern civilization, versatile, resistant and at a good price. But what was, in the 20th century, an extraordinary accelerator of progress and comfort, has become today, due to its use and abuse, an existential danger. The world has become aware. “If we do nothing, by 2060 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans,” warned the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Chistophe Béchu, host of the international conference hosted this week by UNESCO’s Paris headquarters.
Delegates from 175 countries and more than 1,500 scientists and representatives of civil society meet under the auspices of the UN to outline an international treaty, which is expected to be signed by the end of 2024, to curb the unstoppable pollution derived from plastics. The meeting in Paris is the second on the issue, after the one in Uruguay, last November. Three more are scheduled before the possible adoption of the final agreement.
The challenge is colossal. Every year humanity produces almost 500 million tons of new plastic, with the added problem that much of it is single-use products. It is an unsustainable consumption, an immoral waste. If drastic measures are not taken to stop it, it is estimated that production could reach 1,200 million tons in 2060 to satisfy the needs of the population at that time, especially with regard to packaging. The 350 million tons of plastic waste that is now generated annually will also multiply by at least two. The future treaty wants to set the ambitious goal of ending plastic pollution by 2040.
Minister Béchu not only warned about the profusion of plastic in the seas but also about the presence of the material, in its microfiber version, in all corners of the globe, including the tops of the mountains, as France has verified in the Pyrenees. “Heavy plastics, transformed into microparticles, end up being carried by the winds and dispersed all over the planet,†Béchu said in an interview with France Info. We find them in all living species (including the lungs), in soils and in water.”
Sensitivity to the challenge of plastic has grown considerably, in developed countries and in emerging countries that realize the pressing problem they suffer or because, as in Africa, they have performed the thankless role of landfills. Among the states advocating a more restrictive treaty is, for example, Rwanda, the first country to ban plastic bags, in 2008. France is proud to have been the first to eradicate plastic cutlery in food restaurants quick.
Among the participants there are very differentiated positions. The USA, the first consumer of plastic (300 kilos per inhabitant per year, double that of Europeans and five times the world average) hopes that the treaty does not impose global obligations and that each country decides its national commitments, modeled after the Paris climate agreement. This position is shared by Saudi Arabia and China, the leader in production. Beijing also claims that the future treaty recognizes “the fundamental role of plastics for society and the economy”.
Most of the plastic is made from fossil fuels. National interests play a preponderant role in countries that owe their rapid enrichment almost exclusively to oil extraction, such as Saudi Arabia. Confronted with decarbonising transport, the Saudis are trying to slow down the end of their reliance on plastics, as it poses a double threat to their main source of income. The giant Saudi Aramco announced in March the investment of 3,600 million dollars in the development of a petrochemical complex in China and another similar initiative of the French multinational Total, in Saudi territory itself.
Environmental NGOs, such as WWF, insist on the priority of radically reducing high-risk plastics that contaminate the food chain and are harmful to health. There are thousands of toxic substances associated with the manufacture of plastics, such as phthalates or polychlorinated biphenyls. Among the measures being considered is, of course, the ban on single-use plastics or the adoption of a global tax on plastics, a measure that is very difficult to agree on. Ahead of the talks on Monday, a coalition of 55 nations called for a strong treaty that would include restrictions on certain dangerous chemicals, as well as bans on problematic plastic products that are hard to recycle and often end up in nature.
