UN: “Zero Draft” as basis for discussion for third meeting on Plastics Treaty

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On 4 September 2023, the United Nations Organisation (UNO) presented the so-called “Zero Draft” of the Plastics Treaty. This draft is to serve as the basis for the upcoming meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee from 13 to 19 November 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya. The previous meeting in Paris at the beginning of June 2023 served as a basis (RecycleMe reported).

The draft contains some provisions to reduce plastic production and eliminate particularly harmful types of plastics and chemicals. However, it remains vague on many aspects as it contains placeholders for issues that still need to be discussed by participants in the upcoming meeting. The structure of the draft is built around the life cycle of plastic products. Each concern raised by member states in the previous meeting in Paris for inclusion in the agreement, it has been included in the draft as a so-called “element”. There are several options for addressing these.

Basically, there are three options:

• Option 1 would require nations to “disallow and eliminate chemicals and polymers of concern in plastics production”.
• Option 2, on the other hand, only requires “minimising the use of chemicals and polymers of concern”.
• Option 3 offers the least binding, leaving it up to each country to independently regulate the presence and use of problematic chemicals.

Several sources stress that the draft contains positive aspects, such as promoting the recycling of plastics. However, it lacks explicit references to the phasing out of fossil fuels as a key measure to reduce plastic production.

The upcoming official negotiating session, also called INC-3, will take place in Kenya from 13 to 19 November 2023. This marks the third of a total of five planned meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Combating Plastic Pollution. The final scheduled meeting is set for December 2024, with a non-binding target of reaching a legally binding agreement to curb plastic pollution and protect the environment by 2025.  The aim of the five negotiations is to create a legally binding instrument.