Countries like China-Saudi are not ready to reduce plastic products

To free the world from plastic pollution, the fourth round of talks of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on plastic pollution, ongoing in Canada, ended without any result on Tuesday. Due to lack of consensus in most countries of the world regarding reduction in plastic production, the talks did not reach any conclusion despite lasting a day longer than scheduled.

However, more than 75 countries across the world are working on identifying hazardous chemicals in plastic products, redesigning plastics, packaging, and efforts to combat plastic pollution ahead of the fifth and final round of talks to be held in Busan, South Korea from November 25. Agreed to continue technical work on issues such as financing of Discussion on reducing plastic production will continue.

against China-Saudi Arabia
French negotiator Christophe Bechu said efforts to target production faced tough challenges. Especially the big petrochemical producing countries like Saudi Arabia and China as well as the industry are opposing it. Whereas, science says that if plastic pollution has to be ended, production will have to be limited. China’s negotiator Yang Xiaoling said that progress in this matter is possible only if the focus is on non-controversial topics. For example, there should be talk about using less plastic or making it more easily recyclable and redesigning plastic products.