Diplomats have warned that a majority of countries may abandon talks on the world's first plastic pollution agreement if certain delegations continue resisting compromise. Negotiations, held in Busan, South Korea, are deadlocked over key issues including the reduction of plastic production and the phasing out of harmful chemicals.
BUSAN - Diplomats warned Saturday that a majority of countries could walk away from talks on the world's first plastic pollution agreement if a handful of delegations continue resisting calls to compromise.
Over 100 countries back those measures, and insist a treaty without them will fail to solve the pollution crisis. "We are a large group uniting around key effective elements, and getting ready to walk away," he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door deliberations. "I think that if we can't reach an agreement, we'll be obliged to go to a vote. We cannot come all this way, all these kilometres, to fail," he told AFP.
Environmental groups have pushed ambitious countries to move to a vote if progress stalls, arguing that countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia have not offered any compromises during talks."A handful of governments... are looking backwards and refusing to take the steps necessary for us all to advance," said Greenpeace's Graham Forbes.
Another option would be for the diplomat chairing the talks to simply gavel through an agreement over the objections of a handful of holdouts, they said.
Plastic Pollution Diplomatic Talks Busan South Korea Global Agreement Environmental Treaty Chemicals Plastic Production
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