Officials complain about slow progress in talks on plastics deal

Negotiators need to move “significantly” faster to agree a landmark deal to cut plastic pollution, the diplomat heading the talks warned yesterday. Many countries expressed disappointment at limited progress.

Nearly 200 countries gathered in South Korea’s Busan with the aim of agreeing on a deal by the end of the week.

The process covers two years of talks over four previous rounds of talks that were stalled by deep differences over what the deal should be like.

Photo: AFP

Addressing the negotiators on the third day of the negotiations, Luis Vayas Valdivieso warned that the work was not progressing fast enough.

“Progress has been limited and time is of the essence now,” the Ecuadorian diplomat said. “I have to be honest with you, progress has been very slow. “We need to significantly accelerate our work.”

“We must accelerate our efforts to reach agreement on a binding document by December 1,” he added.

His call was followed by a series of disappointing speeches from countries such as Fiji, Panama, Norway and Colombia.

“The crisis is getting worse as we sit here debating the meaning and procedures,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, Panama’s special representative on climate change. “We are here because microplastics are found in the placentas of healthy women.”

We are raising a generation that literally starts life contaminated before taking its first breath.