{"id":48643,"date":"2023-05-31T14:53:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T13:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=48643"},"modified":"2023-05-31T15:00:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T14:00:46","slug":"row-over-veto-powers-holds-up-paris-plastic-treaty-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2023\/05\/31\/row-over-veto-powers-holds-up-paris-plastic-treaty-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Row over veto powers holds up Paris plastic treaty talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talks on setting up a new plastics treaty were held up for two days in Paris as Saudi Arabia and a group of big emerging economies led a push to ensure all governments have veto power over future measures.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plastics are produced with oil and gas and, as the world begins to move to green electricity, the industry sees them as a lifeline for their business.<\/p>\n

According to the official timetable<\/a>, discussions on the rules of procedure were supposed to be wrapped up in one morning at the second set of talks on setting up the new treaty at the Unesco headquarters in Paris.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), which is running the talks, thought that governments had already agreed on how voting would work, at least until the treaty is signed, at the first set of talks in Uruguay last December.<\/span><\/p>\n

Japan joins<\/strong> anti-plastic coalition ahead of Paris treaty talks, leaving US isolated<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> of that meeting said governments had agreed to try and reach a consensus on decisions but, if that was not possible, to see if there is a two-thirds majority among nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consensus risks<\/h3>\n

This would avoid a small number of governments blocking, or threatening to block, wording that most governments agree to. That has happened or nearly happened, several times in climate talks.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, Papua New Guinea <\/span>threatened to block<\/span><\/a> a deal if they did not get their way over rainforest carbon credits although they later backed down.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022, a handful of oil and gas producers like Saudi Arabia successfully <\/span>stopped<\/span><\/a> the conference from agreeing to phase out fossil fuels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At plastics talks, negotiators from the USA, EU, Senegal and Nigeria also thought that the voting system had been decided.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Swiss negotiator said re-opening the debate was \u201cconcerning\u201d while the EU said \u201ctwo-third majority rule is essential to secure progress\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n