Sascha Gabizon, WECF Executive Director, recounts her trip to Busan for the INC-5 Treaty to End Plastic Pollution

Governments of all countries met in Busan, South Korea, for their 5th round – and what should have been final round – of negotiations, the INC5, in which they were to agree on a global, legally binding Treaty to End Plastic Pollution.

As WECF, we worked with partners from the Women’s Major Group and IPEN, including from Tunisia, Indonesia, Kenya and Colombia, with a focus on informing negotiators, in particular women delegates, about the health risks of plastic pollution, from the very start of production of plastics, especially for women’s reproductive health and rights. Marcos Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human rights talked to us about the link between plastic pollution and gender based violence, which can be seen as a reel here.

We organised for the 2nd time our “Women’s Delegate Lunch“, allowing an informal exchange between delegates from all countries to discuss women’s health impacts, in an exchange with the World Health Organisation, Experts from leading Medical Universities, and the United Nations office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights.  Most importantly however, Nina, 17-year old plastic pollution activist from Indonesia, gave the participants an inspirational speech on the urgency of taking global measures to curb plastics.

As expected, the fossil fuel industry is fighting with all their might against having a meaningful global Treaty. There were more plastic and oil lobbyists running around Busan than any Member State delegation. A handful of oil and plastic producing countries lead by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia and India were highly vocal and aggressive, blocking progress on all parts of the negotiations.

The INC5 ended without an agreement, but with a much stronger group of countries that call themselves the Coalition of the Willing, under leadership of courageous African and Small Island Development State countries, and many of these lead by women negotiators. This coalition has grown steadily to over a 100 countries. Unfortunately the ‘unwilling’ handful of oil countries managed to block an agreement at INC5. There will now have to be a next round of negotiations, an INC5.2, in the coming months.

Is this bad? Yes and no, at least we did not get a useless treaty, there is still a glimpse of hope to improve and get a meaningful treaty in the upcoming round.

It is essential that we use these coming months to mobilize all sectors of society, peoples of the world, ecofeminist, we need to engage, because if we don’t end plastic pollution, it will end us!

Our joined statement with the Women’s Major Group during the negotiations can be viewed here: WMG proposals for chair’s non paper INC5 (1)