How does the Temple of Understanding pursue our eco-justice mandate within the complex realm of the United Nations? We collaborate, contribute, amplify, strategize, listen, speak, write, and lift up the voices of others, particularly youth and women of the global south.
The UN process towards a binding treaty limiting plastics in production, in pollution, in toxicity, all along the life cycle, is set to conclude in Geneva at the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, August 5-14
The work of delivering a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution is both exciting and also very technical and ‘geeky,’ and is heading into its overtime session in Geneva. Our main representative to the UN will be there, in observer status, where presence, prayer, and perhaps some persuasion on the sidelines will be possible. And of course, collaborations with the rest of civil society activists gathered to insist that this process deliver with high ambition.
Our work is channeled into the Women’s Major Group’s advocacy, so we are part of a larger collective voice, and have been for many years. We also engage with and applaud the work of the Children and Youth Major Group, and highly recommend the video of their recent Webinar on Plastic Subsidies 101: Road to INC 5.2 by Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP which offers both the leadership of the teenage moderators and the commentary of experts on the interweaving of governmental subsidies into the promotion of plastics for private profit.
For a preview of what will happen during the INC 5.2, you can scan the Scenario note for the second part of the fifth session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment where you can see the reiteration of common purpose and the organized contact groups that will work to bridge differences in their sections of the text. Then there are processes for legal review and a final affirmation of the mandate to deliver this treaty. Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), writes,
“Finally, let us all remember that it remains, more than ever, our collective responsibility to deliver an international legally binding instrument that is effective in addressing the urgent environmental challenge we face, and that will protect future generations and the environment from plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. I count on each participant in the work of the Committee to arrive in Geneva with the determination, drive and constructive engagement, and willingness to show flexibility, that we all need to achieve this important goal.”
The work has been ongoing since the INC 5-1 meeting last December. At the recent Oceans conference in Nice, France, country representatives convened to draft the Nice wake up call for an ambitious plastics treaty,
They highlight five points as follows, and already have 95 countries signed on:
“While all elements of the draft treaty text are important, we believe that the following five points are key to reach an agreement that is commensurate with what science tells us and our citizens are calling for:
Reaffirming that the full lifecycle of plastics includes the production and consumption stages, we recognize that addressing the increasing and unsustainable levels of production and consumption of plastics is essential and represents one of the most efficient and cost-effective approaches to achieving the objective to end plastic pollution. We therefore call for the adoption of a global target to reduce the production and consumption of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels, to be regularly adjusted with a view of enhancing the level of ambition. We also call for an obligation for Parties to report on their production, imports and exports of primary plastic polymers, and to take measures across the full lifecycle of plastics to achieve the global target.
We call for a legally binding obligation to phase out the most problematic plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastic products including those most likely to cause harm or hinder circularity. We support a global list of plastic products and chemicals of concern therein, as well as a robust scientific approach for the COP to take decisions on new entries to this list whilst allowing for flexibilities that take into account specific national circumstances.
We emphasize the importance of a binding obligation to improve the design of plastic products and ensure they cause minimum environmental impact and safeguard human health in order, inter alia, to reduce the use of primary raw materials and chemicals of concern in plastic products while increasing the use of recycled content, and to improve their recyclability and reusability, in pursuit of circular economy approaches.
We recognize the need for effective means of implementation and accessible, new and additional financing, noting the special circumstances of least developed countries and small island developing states. We underscore the need to mobilize the necessary resources from all sources, public and private, domestic and international, in a way that ensures the achievement of the objectives and provisions of the treaty and guided by the polluter-pays principle. We call for the establishment of a financial mechanism that is commensurate with the ambition of the treaty and supports its efficient implementation.
We call for an effective and ambitious treaty that can evolve over time and is responsive to changes in emerging evidence and knowledge. To this end, the treaty should provide for the possibility of decision-making, through regular UN procedures if all efforts to reach consensus have been exhausted.
A treaty that lacks these elements, only relies on voluntary measures or does not address the full lifecycle of plastics will not be effective to deal with the challenge of plastic pollution.
We therefore call on all INC members to seize this historic opportunity to conclude an ambitious, universal and effective treaty at INC-5.2 that demonstrates our collective resolve to end plastic pollution for the benefit of present and future generations and our planet.”
We stand fully behind the countries working towards an ambitious treaty and applaud their work. We also recognize that the work will need to continue afterwards towards ratification and implementation, and we hope that countries that do not sign on will come into alignment with the global mandate.
The Temple of Understanding convened some key speakers last January, and we have been gratified to see more collaboration among us.
Center for International Environmental Law is a key advocate and resource going into this last session, and we will use their documents to help us draft our written input.
Break Free From Plastic is a leading international advocacy organization, a “global movement envisioning a future free from plastics” and they offer a template to contact officials from each country in advance of the next treaty session, and afterwards too
Beyond Plastics is a US based project offering great leadership. They have started organizing with faith communities and offer a resource guide and a Multifaith Declaration on the Global Plastics Treaty
Hidden Plastic has now launched a petition calling for the chair to reintroduce plastics subsidies into the Global Plastics Treaty text. The petition link can be found here.
The Youth Plastic Action Network (YPAN), which will also be officially launched in Geneva during INC-5.2, will be the CYMG affiliation for the global plastics treaty. For those willing to pre-join YPAN as an individual, the signup link for youth (under 35s) can be found here.
The plastic production and pollution is a dire global challenge, to human health and the health of all living creatures, to our oceans, to our carbon reduction goals and global warming, to air pollution from burning toxic wastes. No one can escape the toxicity, and we know that the delivery of goods does not require plastics. There are solutions being developed around the globe, and UNDP has lifted up some of these. They offer multiple benefits, including reducing plastics and reweaving community bonds, reclaiming the sanity of a sustainable life on this planet, rather than the excessive greed of some corporations that are unable or unwilling to pivot to life-sustaining practices. Check out 5 women, 5 countries, 1 mission.
As the TOU’s dear friend Jim Sniffen, formerly of UNEP NYC, said, “It’s going to take change coming up from the grassroots, and from the top down as well.”
Our governments need to be shown what works, and they need pressure to make change on the highest levels and to support grassroots changes already underway. There is no time to waste.
by Grove Harris, M.Div.