Dispatch 4 from UNEP's Ban Plastics Conference
The Firebreak's Man Inside the UNEP Plastic Pollution INC 5.2 Negotiations in Geneva sees despair, outrage and departures
With only one day left for the UNEP Plastic Pollution INC 5.2 Negotiations to find an agreement, anger, confusion and disappointment is rising. The draft text prepared before the event is nowhere to be seen and after eight days of “high-level” meetings, there is a feeling in the room that none of the concerns are being heard. The Firebreak’s “Man Inside” the negotiations noticed a large number of national delegates voting with their feet.
Dispatch for Wednesday, 13 September:
Still No Draft Text?
On Tuesday night, there was no schedule available for Wednesday, but we were expecting a last round of the Contact Group meetings. These took place indeed during the morning, but as expected, no text came out of the meetings. (Normally there is a draft text well in advance of the negotiations.)
As announced yesterday in the observers' briefing, the INC Chair, Vayas, collected input from all parties in various forms, and drafted a text by himself. This approach was wordsmithed by the co-chair of the first Contact Group as “an attempt at a compromise text”. This document was made available shortly before the plenary.
Some confused questions by national delegates (from the IISD’s daily report):
“So, are we proceeding with this Chair’s Draft Text Proposal or with the Chair’s Text we came to Geneva with?”
“What about all our work so far here in Geneva, and the text we’ve been working on?”
“Do we have time to negotiate another version?”
“How are we going to be able to start building those bridges to reach a balanced agreement?”
Bad Chemistry at the Plenary
The mood at the plenary turned sour. Supporters from the High Ambition Coalition camp made bold statements and complained that their views were not taken into account. All parties seemed to be unhappy. For some it was too much, for others too little!
The European Union brought out their big guns (EU Commissioner Roswall, Danish Minister Heunicke and French Minister Pannier-Runacher), but that did not seem to impress the room very much.
The lamentations of certain delegates were exagerated, theatrical even. The chair's text received a colorful range of adjectives, including:
non-ambitious
unbalanced
completely unacceptable … or even worse,
repulsive
Curiously, the "repulsive" label was coming from a country which does not have a basic chemicals management scheme!
Heading for the Beach?
The plenary ended somewhat chaotically, with certain delegations asking what exactly was next. They were supposed to head to other consultations or negotiation rounds, but when I exited the UN compound, I saw flocks of people with red badges (ie, Member Delegate badges) joining me out of the conference center.
During the post-plenary rush to the door, groups of activists where staging demonstrations in the hallways, holding banners with various slogans. This time the anti-plastic banners where not made from plastic. The same, however, could not be said for the advertising banners in the bus stops through the city... Plastic is defining Geneva.