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GENEVA: The UN’s environment chief insists that a landmark global treaty tackling plastic pollution remains achievable, despite talks twice imploding without agreement, and the chair suddenly resigning this week.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Inger Andersen told AFP in an exclusive interview that countries were not walking away, regardless of their sharp differences on combating the ever-growing problem, including in the oceans.
A large bloc wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states wants to focus more narrowly on waste management.
Supposedly final talks in South Korea in 2024 ended without a deal — and a resumed effort in Geneva in August likewise collapsed.
Countries voiced anger and despair as the talks unraveled, but said they nonetheless wanted future negotiations.
“We left with greater clarity. And no-one has left the table,” said Andersen.
“No-one has walked away and said, ‘this is just too hopeless, we’re giving up’. No-one. And all of that, I take courage from.”

- ‘Totally doable’ -

The plastic pollution problem is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks, in the deepest ocean trench and scattered throughout almost every part of the human body.
More than 400 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use items.
While 15 percent of plastic waste is collected for recycling, only nine percent is actually recycled.
Nearly half, or 46 percent, ends up in landfills, while 17 percent is incinerated and 22 percent is mismanaged and becomes litter.
Annual production of fossil fuel-based plastics is set to triple by 2060.
As things stand, there is no timetable for when further talks might be held, and no countries have made formal offers to host them.
But Andersen “absolutely” thinks a deal is within reach.
“This is totally doable. We just need to keep at it,” she said.

- Red line clarity -

UNEP has been shepherding the talks process, which began in 2022.
Summarising where countries are at, Andersen said: “The mood music is: ‘we’re still in the negotiations. We are not walking away. We have our red lines, but we have a better understanding of the others’ red lines. And we still want this’.”
Andersen said Norway and Kenya convened a well-attended meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
The COP30 climate summit in Brazil in November will provide another opportunity to put the feelers out, ahead of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi in December.
Luis Vayas Valdivieso, Ecuador’s ambassador to Britain who chaired the last three of six negotiation rounds, has announced he is stepping down, leaving the process rudderless.

- ‘Serious allegation’ -

Vayas’s Geneva draft treaty text was instantly ripped apart by countries in brutal fashion, and while a revised effort gained some traction, the clock ran out.
British newspaper The Guardian reported that staff from Andersen’s UNEP team held a covert meeting on the last night in Geneva, aimed at coaxing members of civil society groups into pressuring Vayas to quit.
“This is a very, very serious allegation,” Andersen said.
“I did not know and obviously had not asked anyone to do something of this sort.”
She said the allegation had been referred to the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.
“I’ve been in this business for 40 years, and I have never, ever done such a thing, and I would never have asked a staff of mine, or anyone else for that matter, to go and have covert meetings and quote my name and ask to undo a seated chair who is elected by member states. It’s outrageous.”
As for whether a new chair could provide fresh momentum, she said: “As always, when there’s change, there is a degree of a different mood.”

KYIV: The Ukrainian capital was plunged into darkness early Friday by what the air force called a “massive attack,” as Russia pummeled Kyiv’s infrastructure, cutting off water and energy supplies.
The Kremlin has escalated aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and rail systems over recent weeks, mirroring similar campaigns launched over the previous three winters that left people without heating in frigid temperatures.
AFP journalists in Kyiv heard several powerful explosions on Friday and experienced blackouts at their homes across different districts of the city.
“The capital of the country is under an enemy ballistic missile attack and a massive attack by the enemy strike drones,” the Ukrainian air force said, urging people in Kyiv to remain in shelters.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian forces had targeted “critical infrastructure” and wounded at least nine people, five of whom were taken to hospital.
“The left bank of the capital is without electricity. There are also problems with water supply,” Klitschko posted on Telegram.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk said Russian forces were “inflicting a massive strike” on the grid.
“Energy workers are taking all necessary measures to minimize the negative consequences,” Grynchuk wrote on Facebook.
“As soon as security conditions allow, energy workers will begin clarifying the consequences of the attack and restoration work,” she said.
Fearing an incoming hypersonic Kinzhal missile — which are harder to detect and intercept — Ukraine put the entire country on alert on Friday.
Russia also hit the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia with at least seven overnight drone strikes, killing a seven-year-old and wounding at least three people, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the regional military administration.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Moscow was seeking to “create chaos and apply psychological pressure” through crippling energy facilities and railways.
According to Zelensky, Russian attacks this year have already strained Ukrainian gas infrastructure, and more strikes could force his country to ramp up imports.
Ukraine has also stepped up its drone and missile strikes on Russian territory, a tactic that Zelensky said was showing “results” and pushing up fuel prices in Russia.
A Ukrainian hit on a power station in the Russian border region of Belgorod also caused power outages.
Russia accused Ukraine on Thursday of rupturing a now-defunct pipeline near the frontline used to transport ammonia into Ukraine for export, releasing toxic gas.
It posted a video showing what appeared to be clouds of a chemical compound spewing from a source in the ground.
Authorities in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region said the incident did not present a “menace to the lives of people” living nearby.

Citing a recent uptick in Russian drone attacks, Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of children and their guardians from Kramatorsk, the largest civilian hub in the Donetsk region still under Kyiv’s control.
In Sloviansk, another Donbas city under Ukrainian control, the mayor recently advised children and elderly people to leave, citing incessant attacks on the energy system.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia is increasingly deploying small, cheap first-person-view drones that have dramatically changed the character of fighting across the sprawling front line over recent months.
A Ukrainian delegation led by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is expected to visit the United States early next week to discuss, among other topics, energy and air defense under intensifying Russian strikes.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Washington and NATO allies were “stepping up the pressure” to end the war in Ukraine, though his attempts to negotiate with Russia’s Vladimir Putin have so far failed to achieve a ceasefire.
Trump hosted Putin in Alaska in August, after which Russia’s attacks on Ukraine escalated.
Russia said this week that momentum toward a peace deal had largely vanished.