On many West African beaches the tide leaves bottles, sandals and torn nets every morning. Fishermen clear them before launching their boats, and the tide returns. The world produces more than four hundred million tonnes of plastic a year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, and less than a tenth is recycled. President Macky Sall includes the fight against this pollution among the commitments of his candidacy for the office of Secretary-General.
A stalled negotiation. In March 2022, in Nairobi, the United Nations Environment Assembly decided to draw up a legally binding treaty. The sessions in Busan in December 2024 and in Geneva in August 2025 ended without agreement. States are split on a central point: should plastic production be limited, or should waste simply be better managed?
Those who receive without producing. Countries that make little plastic receive a great deal of it, through ocean currents and the waste trade. They bear the cost of clean-up without having driven production.
Fishing on the front line. Fragmented plastic enters the food chain. Fishing supports hundreds of thousands of people along the West African coast, and their income depends on the health of the ocean.
What the Secretary-General can do. He chooses the mediators and says publicly what is blocking, without negotiating in place of states. On this file, a treaty awaited since 2022 needs an arbiter who does not tire.
A common good to protect. The vision statement filed with the United Nations treats the ocean as a common good. A plastics treaty is its practical test, and President Macky Sall asks that the Organization take it.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
Resolution 5/14 of the United Nations Environment Assembly (2022) and reports of the United Nations Environment Programme are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net