The two-thirds majority does not convince all countries. In total, 175 countries have met since Monday in Paris, in the hope of developing the first outlines of a treaty against plastic pollution. But they have not yet started their substantive discussions on Tuesday, due to a procedural deadlock. Indeed, Saudi Arabia and several Gulf countries as well as Russia, China, India and even Brazil refuse to allow the future treaty to be approved by a two-thirds majority vote if there is ever no consensus. not found.
Opposite, a majority of countries defend the vote as a last resort, which would make it possible to override a blocking minority. Or they consider, at the very least, that this question can be decided later. The discussion on this point, which began in plenary session on Monday afternoon, was not yet resolved on Tuesday at midday, preventing the start of negotiations on the content of the future treaty. It should resume at 4 p.m.
“We are wasting time and energy”
“We are missing out on what brings us together here, namely plastic pollution,” thundered Camila Zepeda of the Mexican delegation on Tuesday morning. “We are wasting time and energy in discussions that go around in circles (…) Let’s get to the essentials”, she claimed, warmly applauded by the majority of the delegations and by the observers of the NGOs, present in the stands.
“It is the right of member states to make suggestions” and “we are not in favor of the erroneous definition of the consensus of certain states”, retorted an Iranian diplomat. “The strategy of some countries is to delay the debates,” says Joan-Marc Simon, director of Zero Waste Europe, “because if we want an ambitious treaty that covers the entire plastic life cycle, it will take time. time to negotiate.
The sacrosanct consensus
For the activist, “these countries want a treaty, but which only talks about the end of life of plastic, improving waste management and avoiding releases into the environment”. Thus ruling out the issues of reduced production, toxicity of certain compounds, microplastics, etc.
The Paris agreements on the climate or the Kunming-Montreal agreements on biodiversity were approved by consensus, like most of the treaties established under the aegis of the United Nations, that is to say that it is not organized voting, even by a show of hands. Approval by vote, for lack of consensus, would not be unprecedented, however. It was notably used in 2013 when 140 countries adopted the International Convention on Mercury, signed in Minamata (Japan).