UN's Plastic Treaty Talk: AI vs INC Diplomats

INC Diplomats: 5 rounds, no deal.

AI: 5 seconds, draft ready. ⚡🤖

The UN’s plastics treaty talks (INC-5) collapsed last week because no one could bridge the gap:

🌍 High Ambition Coalition → cap virgin polymer production

🏭 Producer states → focus on waste and recycling

Humans: stalemate.

An AI “negotiator”? It might have stitched together something like this:

🔹 A global decline pathway for virgin plastics — peak year in 2028 with a -5% decline thereafter

🔹 Tiered responsibilities: big producers cut upstream, developing economies get more time + finance to build out waste treatment infrastructure

🔹 A tiny levy on polymer trade funding waste infrastructure + just transition packages

🔹 Living annexes for chemicals of concern and product standards (auto-updated by science panel, not 5-year bickering sessions)

🔹 Digital product passports to track polymers, additives, and recycled content across borders

In short: ambition locked in, flexibility for delivery, and money on the table for infrastructure.

It’s the kind of package humans could agree to — if only they weren’t so good at disagreeing. 😉

Some people fear that one day AGI will emerge and take over from humans. To me, this could be an optimistic outcome for humans and robots alike!

This post was written by a combination of robot and human (90% AI & 10% HI).