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With less than 30 hours to the conclusion of the ongoing United Nations Plastics Treaty negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, delegations from Nigeria and over 80 other countries have dismissed a newly released draft text proposed for adoption.
On Wednesday, the head of the Nigerian delegation in Geneva, Jibrin Ahmadu, for the first time, articulated Nigeria’s concerns about the new text. The contentious text was published less than two hours before the commencement of a scheduled plenary at 4:00 p.m in Geneva (3:00 p.m. GMT).
Nigeria’s reaction at the plenary comes after nine days of engagement during which the government had been absent from the crucial negotiations. PREMIUM TIMES had reported that the Nigerian government has been missing in action since the commencement of the talks last week Tuesday, despite the profound impact of plastic pollution affecting the country’s ecological systems.
“We have our concerns regarding the text that has just been released. We want to specifically mention that the text has gone out of the United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 5/14. It has not addressed the full life cycle approach of plastics,” Mr Ahmadu said while delivering Nigeria’s statement at the plenary.
Just as several other countries took turns to criticise the draft text, the Nigerian delegate argued that the proposed text had no standalone “article on health” and “measures to identify and restrict hazardous chemicals”.
This, he said, includes endocrine-damaging chemicals that are also left out.
The Nigerian official also lamented that the text does not reflect processes to address the impacts of plastic pollution on health and the environment in low and middle-income countries, where plastic production and consumption are increasing.
“Requirements for transparency around the production and use of chemical plastics are left out. We believe strongly that if these are addressed, we may want to further engage,” Mr Ahmadu said.
More details soon…
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