Delay in global treaty on plastic pollution raises environmental risks

A recent study reveals India accounts for almost 20 per cent of global plastic waste annually, which is the fallout from rapid urbanisation and faster economic growth

This month negotiators at the fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting in Busan, South Korea, failed to finalise the global treaty on reducing plastic pollution. By squandering a chance to unite behind a programme, first articulated in March 2022 at the United Nations (UN) Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, to counter the escalating environmental and health problems posed by plastic pollution, the INC-5’s failure has added to the planet’s existential threat. The principal problem was the negotiators’ inability to agree on a text for “upstream measures” — that is, reducing plastic production, and eliminating specified plastic products and certain chemicals