Bangladesh has categorically rejected the latest draft of the proposed Global Plastics Treaty, demanding stronger measures against plastic pollution.
A press release, issued by the environment, forest and climate change on Thursday morning, read that the Bangladesh government stated that the draft fell far short of the mandate set by United Nations Environment Assembly Resolution 5/14 to establish an internationally legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.
The rejection was announced during the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution held on Wednesday at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
According to the environment ministry, the draft 鈥榬epresents a weak and inadequate outcome鈥� that excludes supply-side measures and fails to address the full life cycle of plastics.
The ministry noted that it does not address health impacts, chemicals of concern, or the waste hierarchy, and imposes no robust obligations to curb transboundary plastic pollution.
The draft also lacks provisions for reliable means of implementation, instead relying on a 鈥榗onvoluted and voluntary approach鈥� that ignores the urgency of the global plastic crisis.
鈥楾his text does little to protect human health or the environment from plastic pollution. It reduces the treaty to a waste management framework, shirking responsibility for plastic producers and omitting binding measures to phase out the most harmful plastic products,鈥� the ministry stated.
Bangladesh reaffirmed that without substantial and meaningful amendments, it cannot support the draft, and called on negotiators to significantly raise ambition in line with the UNEA mandate.
Earlier the same day, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the ministries of environment and water resources, called for stronger global partnerships and targeted resources to combat plastic pollution while speaking at an informal ministerial roundtable during programme in Geneva.
She highlighted Bangladesh鈥檚 vulnerability as a downstream country and urged a global framework to address the transboundary pollution.