Today is World Environment Day, whose topic this year is plastic pollution. More than 1,200 activities are planned around the world to raise awareness of the importance of reducing plastic generation and waste. 

After Saudi Arabia, whose record of concern for the fate of the environment is well known, this year's host country is South Korea. There, in December last year, what was to be the last round of negotiations for the first treaty specifically dedicated to UN-driven plastic pollution took place. However, as of June 5, national delegations are still in talks, with the next session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee charged with draft the treaty scheduled for August in Geneva.

While many well-meaning volunteers invest their time to raise awareness of this problem, delegates will continue to negotiate in Geneva on the basis of a document (the "Chair's text" drafted by the chair of the so-called intergovernmental negotiating committee after the session in Korea) that sample the gap between initial ambitions and what is now on the table.

It all starts in March 2022, when the United Nations Environment Assembly (the most important institution in this field, of which 193 states are members) adopted Resolution 5/14 entitled, somewhat optimistically, "Ending Plastic Pollution". In it, the Assembly called on the intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop the first legally binding international treaty to combat plastic pollution. More specifically, the resolution asked the committee for a text that addresses the entire life cycle of plastic (extraction, production, design and disposal) and promotes sustainable production and consumption, including through circular Economics approaches.

However, since the talks began, the "Like-minded" group (which brings together an indefinite issue of oil-extracting and plastics-producing states, including Russia, India, China and Saudi Arabia) has drawn more and more red lines on core topic issues so that the treaty can make a real contribution to combating plastic pollution. Key issues, such as the reduction to sustainable levels in the production of plastic polymers (PET, PVC, polyethylene, etc.) or the progressive Withdrawal of the use of additives (stabilizers, colorants, flame retardants, etc.) containing hazardous chemicals, will probably not be included in the final version of the agreement. Or if any provision on them is introduced, the language and terms used will allow each country to interpret it as it sees fit.

It should therefore come as no surprise that one of the few points on which there seems to be some consensus among national delegates is that of plastic waste management . It is true that focusing on the plastic waste management phase alone is a more concrete and faster way to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution. However, I believe that settling for this goal would betray the expectations of those of us who want to protect our environment and stop ingesting a weekly amount of nano-plastics equivalent to a credit card .

Giving priority to the management of plastic waste would be a modest and short-sighted approach at the same time. Modest, because we are talking about plastic waste, i.e. waste already generated and present around us that we need to get rid of. Short-sighted, because it would be tantamount to mopping the floor while the tap is still running, given the expected increase in the production of new plastic products in the coming years. Resigning ourselves to regulating only the management phase of the entire life cycle of plastics would mean closing a minimum agreement , however detailed its rules and regulations may be. A gradual reduction and, ideally, a ban on the production of new plastic polymers would be the only truly effective solution to mitigate plastic pollution.

In the meantime, let us celebrate this World Environment Day in the hope that the "sincere prayers" requested by the Bhutanese delegate, Sachin Limbu, Deputy Director of the Environment department of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, at the last negotiations in Korea will bear fruit, and that next August the negotiators will succeed in reaching a consensus on a final draft of the treaty and, above all, on a more ambitious text than the current one.