Zero draft of plastic treaty being prepared for review at INC-3
Staff Correspondent :
To prevent Plastic pollution and harmful plastic, the second session of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) on plastic pollution and marine environment finished up by laying out a roadmap for the time in between meetings leading to INC-3, requiring the creation of a “zero draft” of the new treaty for review at INC-3 in November.
Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) provided an overview of the INC-3 meeting’s in the media briefing at its office in the city on Thursday.
Dr Shahriar Hossain, Secretary General of Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO), informed, “The meeting was seen by many as a way to gauge the committee members dedication to the process and to the treaty that would eventually end plastic pollution. Despite the contentious debates, lengthy pauses, and late hours, the Nairobi spirit was still alive.”
“All the plastic that we have ever touched is most likely still in existence. Even if it’s fragmenting, it still remains land or sea-based.
Plastic has been found in the most remote and most accessible areas of the natural world. Furthermore, plastic is created from fossil fuels, and emits greenhouse gases that influence climate change,” he added.
Delegates at the second encounter of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) to develop an international legally binding instrument (ILBI) about plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, gathered at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris, France.
Two contact groups were held throughout the day and night, and they discussed objectives and obligations, measures of implementation (Mol), implementation measures, and other matters. Group-1 put their emphasis on reducing micro-plastics, strengthening waste management, banning use of chemicals and polymers of concern, including use of safe sustainable alternatives and substitutes on the 12 potential duties, the committee decided to go with the oral decision.
In final decision INC-2 reports forward to the secretariat and upload this submissions to the INC website also requests INC chair Meza Cuadra with the support of the secretariat to prepare a zero draft text of the lLBI for Consideration at INC-3.
The resolution also calls on the Secretariat to: ask observers to submit their ideas by August 15, 2023 and for member states to do the same by September 15, 2023, for elements that were not included in the options paper, such as principles and scope, and for any areas that need to be addressed between meetings.
“It is needed to tackle the chemicals in plastics to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of plastics at all states of their lifecycle,” said Syed Marghub Murshed, former secretary of the government and Chairperson of the ESDO.
