The second round of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the Plastics Treaty currently being held in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 170 countries gathered to discuss the implementation of a treaty on plastic pollution, risks jeopardizing developing, particularly, African countries’ efforts to lift their populations out of poverty through industrial development just the way today’s developed countries benefited from the petrochemical industry. The direction that the negotiation is being teleguided towards by the developed countries, who are, historically, the primary causes of today’s global environmental pollution aims to kill any efforts at industrialization in Africa and other developing countries.
As an Organization dedicated to the promotion of cooperation and harmonization of efforts, collaboration, sharing of knowledge and expertise among African oil-producing countries, with a view to making our countries to equally benefit from their oil and gas resources as today’s developed countries have benefited from exploiting those resources of Africa, APPO opposes the manipulation of the scope of the treaty, which at the moment is not defined. Negotiations on Article 3 on Plastics products, Article 5 on Plastics products design, Article 6 on plastics supply, Article 10 on Juts transition and Article 11 on financial mechanisms, are being highly manipulated by today’s leading proponents of global energy transition, when they are also the ones responsible for both historical and contemporary causes of the global environmental challenge.
APPO urges developing countries, especially from Africa in the negotiation process not to allow themselves to be hoodwinked or cajoled into accepting conclusions that will have long term negative impact on their industrial development, and by implication the prospect of uplifting their population from poverty to affluence. We urge our negotiators not to be fooled by any promise of financial support from the developed countries, as these have proved to be a mirage in the course of the various COPs negotiations.
We urge the global community, including the United Nations, to be critical as it reviews matters that are brought before it in the name of universalism, when in reality, they are dictated by the needs of the powerful countries of the world. Africa did not cause the world’s environmental pollution. Africa has the highest proportion of the world’s population living in abject poverty, with no access to electricity or modern energy. The world cannot be talking about humanity when it is at the same time making regulations that makes it impossible for Africa to be able to stand on its own and use its God endowed resources for the good of its population.
Done in Brazzaville on 13th August 2025
The APPO Secretariat.
Press contact:
Dr. Carmen Fifamè Toudonou, Editor Phone: 00242 06 838 50 75
Mail : [email protected]
