In less than a week, over 4,000 representatives from UN Member States and observers from around the world will gather in Ottawa, Canada, for the fourth session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee to advance a plastics treaty (INC-4). Previous negotiations have swirled around procedural issues, leading to delays and frustrations. As the clock ticks with eighty-five scheduled hours of negotiations left, two crucial questions arise: where do negotiations stand? What is needed to ensure success in Ottawa?
Over the last eighteen months, negotiations have focused on crafting a draft of the future treaty text. Member States and Observers offered written submissions and interventions during previous INCs that were whittled into a rough outline in an “options paper” and then a slightly more fleshed-out document called a “zero draft.” While the goal of INC-3 was to advance a mandate to develop a first draft, the INC instead opted to further develop the document into what is now referred to as the “revised zero draft.”
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