Dispatch 5 from UNEP's Never-Ending Ban Plastics Conference
The Firebreak's Man Inside the UNEP Plastic Pollution INC 5.2 Negotiations in Geneva sees a much smaller negotiating circle forming
As talks failed to conclude this day (Thursday, August 14), The Firebreak’s Man Inside the UNEP Plastic Pollution INC 5.2 came to the realization that the negotiations have narrowed to a closed circle of people. With the draft text abandoned at the start of the second week and a large number of national delegates now being excluded, failure seems imminent.
Is this the last day (… really)? There was a daily schedule announced in the morning: group consultations, heads of delegations, and then a plenary at 3 PM.
When Will This End?
But as discussions continued behind closed doors, the timing of the plenary kept being pushed further away (4 pm, then 6 pm, then 7 pm, then 9:30, 11:30 and so on. In the hallways, the activists were using the down time to stage press events, but these did not seem to attract much interest.
People started to move around and large groups decided to stay on the grass outside, as the evening fell and the waiting became unbearable.
Everybody was tired and hungry. Many of us started to roam outside the UN compound to look for food (the queues at the cafeteria were just insane). With no information and nothing to do, I decided myself to go outside to get some food.
As suspense was building, we were informed officially that the access to the UN Compound was open until 1 am … and then later the organizers confirmed that that it would be available overnight.
By 11:30 PM the chair called the plenary. But it was merely to announce that the meeting would be adjourned until Friday 15 August. There was no precise schedule.
What are the Chances of Success?
I concluded therefore that they have not gotten near an agreement, and that basically we were living in a déjà vu (from the failures at the last conference last year in Busan).
It would be hard to believe, at this point, that a deal that could satisfy all of the parties is in the pipeline.
After the very short plenary, as I was leaving the compound to the bus, I had conversations with other delegates from various countries. They seemed to be in the same fog like us observers, indicating that the negotiations are really restricted to a closed circle of people.
After a long day of nothing, thousands of delegates who have all come to Geneva to negotiate an agreement on plastic pollution are waiting to see what tomorrow will bring.