The Federated States of Micronesia Takes a Lead At the 2nd Intergovernmental Plastics Negotiations (INC-2) in Paris June 7, 2024

PALIKIR, Pohnpei — The Federated States of Micronesia continued its leadership role in the multilateral environmental arena by making several key contributions to the most recent session of intergovernmental negotiations on a new plastics pollution treaty (INC-2) that took place in Paris, France from May 29 to June 2.   Before the talks, then Secretary Andrew Yatilman of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Emergency Management joined over fifty other ministers from the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution in setting the goals and expectations for the session. The Coalition ministers called for binding restrictions in the upcoming treaty across all phases of the plastics lifecycle, including on the production and consumption of primary plastics polymers; on unnecessary, avoidable and problematic plastics; on ensuring the safe circularity of plastics and effective waste management; and on reporting of production levels and materials and chemicals used in making plastics, among other demands. The High Ambition Coalition made great progress at the session, including achieving their ministers’ call for an agreement to develop a first, or “zero draft,” of the treaty, as well as an agreement to make progress on other key issues before the next session of negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya in November of this year.   Also during the negotiations, the Federated States of Micronesia spearheaded the development of a proposal for financing the work under the treaty by developing countries. Co-Sponsored by Chile, the Cook Islands, Ecuador, the FSM, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda, the proposal received significant attention, as it was the only joint proposal to emerge from the over 170 countries that attended the negotiations.
The FSM and its co-sponsors’ financial mechanism proposal is largely modeled after the financial mechanism of the Montreal Protocol, and calls for a similar Multilateral Fund to support developing countries’ implementation of the plastics treaty. The Multilateral Fund under the Montreal Protocol is widely hailed for its effectiveness in supporting the phaseouts of the ozone-destroying fluoridated gases CFCs and HCFCs. The Fund will also be used to support the upcoming phase down of HFCs under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which the FSM and Mauritius were first to propose in 2009.
The new co-sponsors group of small island, African and Latin American countries believes a similar fund will be most suitable to help deliver the ambitious goals they share for the expected plastics treaty, including protecting the marine environment from plastic pollution. Six of the seven co-sponsors of the financial mechanism proposal are members of the High Ambition Coalition, and the group has already been approached by several additional countries that are eager to join the group as co-sponsors.   “We made excellent progress at this second negotiating session,” said Cindy Ehmes, acting Secretary of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Emergency Management. “We secured a mandate for a zero draft, and we built major support across several geographic regions for the robust financial mechanism we need. With ambitious, binding obligations across the plastics lifecycle and full and effective implementation support, we’re confident we can achieve our core goals of protecting human health and ecosystems—particularly the marine environment—by eliminating global plastic pollution.”   High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution Joint Ministerial Statement INC2 https://hactoendplasticpollution.org/high-ambition…/ Proposal from Chile, the Cook Islands, Ecuador, the Federated States of Micronesia, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda on Means of Implementation https://wedocs.unep.org/…/20…/42610/JointProposal.pdf