Burning issue: Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso at the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution meeting. Photo: Anthony Wallace/AFP
A recent analysis found that the largest delegation at the plastics treaty negotiations in Busan, South Korea, consisted of lobbyists from the fossil fuel and chemical industries.
The findings, released by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) on Wednesday, revealed that 221 lobbyists from the fossil fuel and chemical industries were registered to participate in INC-5 – the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution.
This is the highest number of lobbyists in the plastics treaty negotiations analyzed by CIEL so far. The previous record of 196 lobbyists was recorded at INC-4 in Ottawa last April.
The analysis, based on the UN Environment Programme’s draft list of INC-5 participants, comes midway through the final negotiations, during which a global plastics treaty is expected to be finalized.
In 2022, the UN Environment Assembly launched a two-year process to establish a binding global treaty that would address the full life cycle of plastics, from production to disposal.
INC-5 marks the fifth and final round of negotiations.
The figure of 221 lobbyists is likely to be an underestimate, as the methodology relies on delegates disclosing their ties to fossil fuel or chemical industry interests, and some lobbyists “may choose not to disclose their connection,” the environmental law nonprofit said.
For its analysis, CIEL collaborated with Greenpeace, the Break Free From Plastic movement, the International Pollutant Elimination Network, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, the Environmental Investigation Agency, and the Coalition of Scientists for an Effective Plastics Treaty, among other civil society groups.
They called on the Assembly “to protect the negotiating process from industry influence” and implement strict conflict-of-interest policies “so that plastics treaty negotiations do not become the same kind of impasse” seen in climate negotiations.
CIEL’s analysis found that fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists, taken together, would be the “largest single delegation” at INC-5, significantly outnumbering the 140 representatives from host country South Korea.
Lobbyists also outnumber the delegations of the EU and all its member states combined (191), as well as the 89 representatives of the Pacific Island Developing States and the 165 from Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The analysis identified 16 lobbyists in national delegations, including those from China, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, Iran, Kazakhstan and Malaysia. Dow (5) and ExxonMobil (4) were among the “best represented fossil fuel and chemical companies with many lobbyists” attending the negotiations.
Similarly, lobbyists from the chemical and fossil fuel industries outnumber the Coalition of Scientists for an Effective Plastics Treaty by three to one and the Indigenous Peoples Caucus by almost nine to one.
“With each INC, we have seen an increase in lobbyists from the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry, but efforts to influence the future treaty extend well beyond the negotiations themselves,” the groups said.
“Reports of intimidation and interference have emerged, including allegations of industry representatives intimidating independent scientists participating in negotiations and pressuring country delegations to replace technical experts with pro-industry representatives.”
(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)
‘Undue influence’
The Mail & Guardian reported concerns raised by a civil society coalition including WWF South Africa, groundWork South Africa and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment has given undue influence to the plastics and chemical industries in its delegation to the global plastics treaty and in its national policy work.
According to the coalition, Plastics SA, which describes itself as the voice of South Africa’s plastics industry, “continues to have increased access and visibility” with government.
The coalition said it was important for the plastics industry to participate in the national consultation for the treaty, “however, their influence on the South African position should be limited”.
It cited a “conflict of interest due to the industry’s financial interests and profits”, directly linked to the plastics pollution crisis.
This limited influence has not been contained, with recent changes and new appointments to the South African delegation to INC-5.
“There have been growing concerns that previously progressive technical experts have been replaced by experts more in line with the petrochemical industry’s position,” the coalition said.
It was also revealed that Thokozani Masilela, the director…