A new diplomatic milestone was achieved on the long road to adopting the first international treaty to put an end to the scourge of plastic pollution. On the second day of the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) on Tuesday, June 10, countries pushing for a binding agreement launched “The Nice Call for an Ambitious Treaty on Plastic Pollution.” The declaration, initiated by France as the host of the third edition of the UNOC, has already received support from 95 countries across all continents − except for the US or China, the world’s two largest consumers of plastics.
The “Nice Call” came at a pivotal moment in negotiations: two months ahead of a decisive session set for Geneva from August 5 to 14, following the failure of the previous diplomatic round in December 2024 in Busan. In South Korea, the international community could not reach an agreement on a treaty because of opposition from a minority of oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and from China − the largest consumer of plastics − who wanted to restrict the treaty to waste management only and to oppose any obligation to reduce plastic production. “Plastic pollution is no longer a distant threat. It is a crisis unfolding before our eyes, impacting our ocean, our health, our environment,”said the minister for ecological transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, during a conference in Nice with her counterparts from Mexico, Cambodia, Senegal, Tuvalu and the European commissioner for the environment. “This declaration sends a clear and strong message: We will not give up.” She continued, “With this ‘Nice Wake Up Call,’ we highlight what we consider the key elements to finalize the negotiation of the plastic treaty in Geneva in August.”
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