The end of Plastic Treaty in INC-4

Yesterday, the final session of the INC-4 summit was held in the city of Ottawa, and the fate of production and economy of many countries was supposed to be determined in this session. The final summary and reaching a unified goal was a topic that seemed far-fetched before, but as it is evident, on the final day of this summit, the issue has taken a different turn.

Alireza Sahaf Amin, the representative of the National Association of Polymer Industries of Iran at the INC-4 summit, says: “On the last day of the summit, the plastic pollution document was discussed until late at night, and according to the conference process where significant disagreements were seen in the positions of countries, all countries were concerned about the conclusion of this conference without any practical outcome of its progress. In the end, with an interesting event that occurred at the conference, all negotiating parties gathered around Iran’s table for 45 minutes and engaged in discussions and deliberations regarding the final statement.”

It was added: “Ultimately, this summit reached its final text with the cooperation of representatives from Iran, Uruguay, Brazil, Iraq, the European Union, Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Norway, and this summit concluded with all its ups and downs on the morning of April 30th. In the final statement, it was decided that countries should form an emergency expert group, and possibly in the last week of August 2024 in Bangkok, they will discuss methods of designing plastic products with or without indicators and chemical substances related to plastic products, focusing on recyclability and reuse of these products in various applications. Members of this group may also have 1 or 2 virtual non-presential sessions. Given the opportunity, experts in the field of plastics in the country must engage in technical collaboration focusing on national interests in this area.”