WWF calls for a strong agreement against plastics one week before negotiations begin

Antonio Broto

Geneva, July 28 (EFE) - One week before the start of what could be the final round of negotiations for a global plastics restriction treaty in Geneva, the environmental organization WWF called on the international community not to give in to pressure from a minority of countries—mainly oil producers—that remain opposed to an agreement.

"A strong, binding, global treaty must be forged to end plastic pollution, but there is a risk of signing a weak agreement that will only perpetuate the damage to future generations," the NGO warned in a statement.

International pressure mounts to conclude a treaty to curb plastics

Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and other major producers of crude oil, an essential raw material for the manufacture of all types of plastics, have expressed their opposition to a restrictive and binding treaty and have demanded that any agreement emerging from Geneva be approved by consensus by all negotiating delegations.

In response, WWF proposes that the eventual treaty not be adopted by consensus but simply by majority vote, and points out that other important legal instruments with global value, such as the Declaration of Human Rights, have followed this path in the past.

"Oil-producing countries have used the idea of consensus not to reach agreements, but to sabotage them. This is not multilateralism, but obstructionism," WWF negotiations expert Zaynab Sadan said in the statement.

Every day costs

WWF warns that every day the treaty is delayed, which has been under discussion since 2022, "30,000 tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans," so failure to reach an agreement in Geneva "will make the crisis more costly and dangerous."

The organization supports its call with a report prepared in conjunction with the University of Birmingham, which summarizes more than 200 studies showing that microplastics in the food chain can cause endocrine dysfunction and hormone-related cancers, such as breast and testicular cancer, as well as reproductive and fertility problems.

Although research into the potential harm of plastic waste is still incomplete in many cases, WWF maintains that it is urgent to adopt preventive limits on the production of these materials, in the same way that in the 1980s, a reduction in gases that damaged the ozone layer was approved even before there was complete scientific certainty about their harmfulness.

"The 1987 Montreal Protocol and other agreements demonstrated that countries were capable of taking decisive action against substances that damage the ozone layer, preventing millions of cases of skin cancer," recalled Stefan Krause, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Birmingham.

The historic ruling in The Hague inspires optimism

WWF points out that plastic production may be associated with between 21 and 31 percent of total emissions linked to global warming, and that last week the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that countries must undertake a reduction in fossil fuel use or else violate the human right to a healthy environment.

The new round of plastics negotiations, from August 5 to 14, will bring together delegations from 170 countries and will be the sixth since they began three years ago.

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The fifth, held in Busan, South Korea, at the end of 2024, was originally scheduled to be the last, but it was concluded without a firm agreement due to opposition from countries such as those mentioned above.

Large emerging economies such as China and India have also shown reluctance to accept restrictive agreements, which are instead championed by a large bloc led by the European Union, which is joined by numerous developing nations.