The chair of stalled UN plastics treaty talks, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, is preparing to step down, after accounts of behind-the-scenes pressure from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).
The move will be announced at a UN meeting on Tuesday, with an official announcement expected by Thursday. Vayas Valdivieso confirmed in an interview with the Guardian that he was resigning and said: “There have been some challenges in the process.”
In August, global talks at the UN headquarters in Geneva to agree on a treaty to deal with accelerating plastic pollution collapsed after three years of negotiations. There is currently no deal and the future of the agreement is unclear.
The chair’s sudden resignation leaves the plastic treaty in an even more uncertain position, and raises questions around the governance of the process.
Vayas Valdivieso faced criticism from NGOs and member states during the latest stage of the talks for releasing a draft text, which was rejected by the majority of negotiators and described by the UK’s head of delegation, the minister Emma Hardy as the “lowest common denominator”. Ghana said the text would “entrench the status quo for decades to come”.
A section on plastic production limits from a previous draft had been removed, and there was no mention of hazardous chemicals in plastics. Text about addressing plastic pollution across the “full life cycle” from a previous draft had also been taken out.
A second text, which was described as marginally better but still criticised for not being ambitious enough, came too late for an agreement to be formed. It was also rejected as the basis for continuing talks.
Vayas Valdivieso said he had stepped down for personal and professional reasons. He defended his work, saying the treaty process had so far “achieved very important goals”. He added that the much-criticised first draft was never intended, in his mind, to be the final version.
While some have criticised the chair’s leadership, concerns have also been raised that his work has been obstructed by Unep, which is headed by the executive director, Inger Andersen. Sources told the Guardian and others that Unep staff, who are supposed to be impartial, held a covert meeting on the final night of the negotiations, intended to coax members of civil society groups into pressuring the chair to step down.
“I was at the meeting and I found it to be very problematic,” one of those who attended told the Guardian. They added that they only discovered the meeting was about the alleged “dissatisfaction with the chair” once already in the room, and felt uncomfortable being there.
In a letter seen by the Guardian and confirmed by Vayas Valdivieso, he lodged an inquiry with Unep asking for information about the gathering “whose focus was the chair’s management” of the process.
He asked Unep to take “measures to prevent similar situations” and also called for more transparency in the negotiations overall, saying: “This is a member [state]-driven negotiation, and I’ve been defending that, and will defend that, until the last day of my chairpersonship.”
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He said that although he was sad, his resignation was also an opportunity to bring “new blood, new initiatives, new ideas for the process”. He added that his decision to step down had nothing to do with what unfolded at the talks in Geneva.
The Guardian has also reported on how petrostates and well-funded plastic industry lobbyists have worked to derail a deal to cut plastic production.
Christina Dixon, an ocean campaign leader at the Environmental Investigation Agency, described Vayas Valdivieso’s resignation as “a stark reminder of the dysfunction that has plagued the plastics treaty negotiations from the beginning”. She said trust in the process had to be urgently be restored if there was to be any hope of reaching a meaningful outcome.
A Unep spokesperson said: “While Unep has not been formally informed by the chair he plans to step down, the executive director wishes to thank Luis Vayas Valdivieso for his tireless service as chair of the INC process.” Commenting on the informal gathering, Unep said the executive director “was unaware of any meeting until it was brought to our attention. This matter is now being handled in accordance with UN rules and regulations.”
