From November 25 to December 2, the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5) was held in Busan, Korea . More than 1400 negotiators from 178 member countries, and more than 2300 representatives from intergovernmental organizations, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the media participated in the Session. Fang Guo, Vice Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China , led a Chinese delegation consisting of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce and other technical support units to attend the Session. Associate Researcher Zhao Nana, Assistant Director of Basel Convention Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific (hereinafter referred to as "BCRC China"), and Mr. Tan Quanyin, Chief of General Office of BCRC China, participated in the session as members of the Chinese government delegation.
INC-5 was the last meeting to conclude an international instrument on plastic pollution, as mandated by the resolution of the Fifth United Nations Environment Session. The session established four contact groups and advanced the negotiating process by means of a number of closed informal consultative meetings. However, after five rounds of formal consultations over a period of two years, the parties still had significant differences on some of the key issues, such as supply, plastics and chemicals used in plastics, and the financial mechanism, and ultimately did not succeed in reaching agreement at the Busan Session. It was decided that INC-5 would be adjourned to a resumed session to be held at a later date in 2025 to continue negotiations on the instrument.
During the preparatory phase of the Session and the negotiation process, representatives of BCRC China provided strong technical support to the Chinese delegation on such topics as emissions and releases, plastic waste management, existing plastic pollution, scope of the control of the Convention, plastics and chemicals used in plastics, extended producer responsibility, definitions, etc., and played an important role in the negotiation at the Session and within the contact groups.
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