“We must end plastic pollution before plastic pollution ends us.”

With these words, the host country of the fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5), the Republic of Korea, called on negotiators, delegates and officials to make Busan a defining moment in the world’s efforts to end plastic pollution. 

Korea’s Minister of Environment, Kim Wan-seop, said INC-5 is a pivotal moment where the international community must capitalise and do what is best for the environment and mankind. 

INC-5 take place at a time where plastic pollution continues to wreak havoc on natural systems and species, damaging ecosystem resilience, harming human health and emitting more greenhouse gases, pushing the world further into climate disaster.

The plastic pollution crisis has placed Pacific communities at the forefront of impacts despite the region contributing less than 1.3 per cent to global plastic pollution. 

This week, delegates from Pacific countries are amongst more than 4,000 participants attending the meeting in Busan. For the past two years, Pacific delegations have been engaging and amplifying regional and national priorities as nations have been trying to craft a legally binding global treaty, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) unanimously approved a resolution to end plastic pollution, setting the stage to create a legally binding treaty by 2024, in Nairobi in 2022. 

The first four INCs were held in Uruguay, France, Kenya and Canada with the negotiation process due to end in Busan, South Korea.  But with seven days to go from 25 November to 1 December, there are so many uncertainties. 

The two major issues that will be the focus at the INC-5 are whether to prioritise the regulation of plastic production or promote reuse and whether to specify a target year for international plastic agreements. The key issue in the debate over production regulation is whether to impose limits on the production of primary polymers, which are raw materials used to make plastics extracted from fossil fuels.

INC-5 Chair Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso, of Ecuador said negotiators have a lot of work to do. He has shared a non-paper, “suggesting text for those articles where [he believes] there is sufficient convergence.” 

The non-paper is proposed as a basis for negotiations at the INC’s fifth session.

Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, called on negotiators and delegates to deliver an instrument this week that end plastic pollution. She cited a letter from Myles Kariuki, a young Kenyan, who wrote: ‘Since this plastic pollution spreads, we will not have food. Fish are eating plastic. Our parents won’t have money to pay our school fees. Please help us.’ 

Essentially, in his community, Andersen said the fish catch has gone down due to plastic in the nets and people’s lives are impacted.

“Here, in Busan, we have reached the moment of truth, for children like Myles and people all over the world,” she said.

“This is your chance to craft an instrument for the ages. One that could deliver thousands of years free from plastic pollution. At the end of this week, the gavel must come down on an instrument that represents an ambitious starting point. Not everything will be as detailed as some may wish. But the broad contours and strokes must be there.”

Pacific Small Island Developing States are disproportionately affected by transboundary plastic pollution and are calling for urgent action to remedy this issue, coupled with the means to do so, including financial resources. PSIDS are also calling for stronger legal obligations for the remediation of existing plastic pollution in the marine environment, including in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

This story was originally published at SPREP on 25 November 2024, reposted via PACNEWS.