'Convergence' growing on global plastics treaty: UN environment chief

Two local government sanitation workers clean a river from plastic waste using a raft made of old plastic jerrycans in Jakarta on Sept. 20, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)

The U.N. environment chief said Sunday she was beginning to see convergence on the world's first binding treaty on plastic pollution despite differences on production caps and a tax-like plastic fee.

Inger Andersen, director of the U.N. Environment Program, said her team was "getting ready" for final negotiations in late November in South Korea's Busan.

There, countries are hoping to seal a potentially groundbreaking deal to tackle the gargantuan problem of plastic pollution.

"There are certain areas where I think we're beginning to see convergence," Andersen said from New York ahead of an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

Speaking during a briefing, Andersen said she was hopeful that member states would be able to agree on "some degree of global obligations or guidelines for plastic products."

She noted growing convergence on the need for a scientific body and "some degree of text that will deal with waste, waste management, recycling."

"There's also clear understanding that we need to have some sort of text that will deal with legacy or existing pollution, that which will wash up on our shores even after we've turned off the proverbial plastic tap," Andersen added.

"And there's also clear understanding we need to have some sort of reporting framework".

  Sticking points 

Negotiators have already met several times to discuss a deal that could include production caps, unified rules on recyclability, and even bans on certain plastics or chemical components.

But...