Highlights and images for 28 November 2024

Delegates worked at a frenetic pace to make progress at the midway point of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) to develop an international legally binding instrument (ILBI) on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

Basing their discussions on the INC Chair’s Non-Paper, while making reference to the compilation of draft text (UNEP/PP/INC.5/4), they also considered states’ submissions as the basis of negotiations for some parts of the text. All four contact groups met for at least six hours during the day and into the night. These groups were:

• Contact Group 1, co-chaired by Maria Angélica Ikeda (Brazil) and Axel Borchmann (Germany), mandated to address definitions, exemptions, plastic products, chemicals of concern as used in plastic products, product design, and production/supply and related aspects;
• Contact Group 2, co-chaired by Oliver Boachie (Ghana) and Tuulia Toikka (Finland), mandated to consider plastic waste management, emissions and releases, existing plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, and just transition;
• Contact Group 3, co-chaired by Gwendalyn Kingtaro Sisior (Palau) and Katherine Lynch (Australia), mandated to discuss finance, including the establishment of a financial mechanism, capacity building, technical assistance and technology transfer, and international cooperation; and
• Contact Group 4, co-chaired by Han Min Young (Republic of Korea) and Linroy Christian (Antigua and Barbuda), mandated to consider objective, scope, preamble and principles, as well as implementation and compliance, national plans, reporting, monitoring of progress and effectiveness evaluation, information exchange, awareness, education and research, and final provisions.

In many discussions, delegates considered the nature of the future ILBI. Which provisions will be legally binding and which will be voluntary? Which measures will apply at the global level, and which will states have to implement at a national level? These discussions played out in considerations on plastic waste management and information exchange among states and other entities, among others. In their discussions on final provisions, familiar reservations were shared over whether and how to include regional economic integration organizations. In discussions on finance, including establishing a financial mechanism, views from developed and developing countries continued to diverge.

Throughout the day, the pace was frantic, as delegations strived to produce text that could be reviewed by the Legal Drafting Group (LDG). Despite the sense of urgency, negotiations in contact groups produced bloated texts, heavily bracketed, leaving delegates wondering how they would tackle what is essentially another compilation text. Repeated calls were heard to revert to the Chair’s Non-Paper. In other instances, some Co-Chairs were left with the task of transmitting diverging proposals from states to INC Chair Luis Vayas for review.

On Thursday, procedural questions persisted, with some countries left wondering whether, given the time constraints, text could be agreed in plenary before the LDG review. Aware that the clock was ticking, others were of the view that text could be submitted directly to the LDG. Regardless, contact groups continued to meet into the evening, with many still hoping to reach convergence.