탈(脫)플라스틱 시대를 향한 최근 국제법적 논의와 평가

Since the 20th century, plastics have brought tremendous advantages to modern human civilizations so that the periods have been symbolized as the so-called ‘Plastic Era'. Because of this, some points have been raised as follows. In the present age that humans are living in, we have entered into a new geological era, the ‘Anthropocene’, in that plastic-based human activities have caused rapid and dominant changes in the Earth. It is said that the plastic wastes used indiscriminately by humans remain in the stratum and become ‘Plastic Stone' or ‘Plastic Fossil’. A significant number of environmentalists are raising the alarm about the reality of plastic pollution. To respond to this grave reality, at the 5.2th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly(UNEA) in March 2022, 175 UN member states adopted a historic Resolution to end plastic pollution, setting state to establish a legally binding international convention by 2024 to prevent and reduce global plastic pollution. On the one hand, a trade-based approach is inevitable in plastic-related regulations. In November 2020, the World Trade Organization(WTO) also launched an Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade(IDP) between some WTO member states and an active discussion about the issue is in progress. Although it is not an official WTO negotiation, it can be positively evaluated in that it continues to draw a high degree of attention of WTO member states on plastic pollution. As for the plastics pollution convention, the inaugural meeting is scheduled to take place through the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in the second half of 2022. This paper outlines discussions so far and predicts what will be included in the future global convention. In particular, the purpose of the convention, nationally determined contributions(NDCs), and mechanisms for implementation and compliance are reviewed as key pillars. For this convention to be a meaningful and advanced step, specific plastic regulatory measures that bind the international community must be stipulated. However, given the limited time, it is expected that after being enacted as a framework convention, it will be further specified in the form of a follow-up protocol. As a framework convention, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Paris Agreement should be taken as exemplary precedents and it is necessary to refer to them. This paper provides an overview of the recent international discourses to reduce plastic pollution at the UNEA and the WTO process in the era of ‘Plastic-Free’ and ‘Post-Plastic’ As a result, the current direction of the international community is not to be ‘Plastic-Free’ or completely ‘Zero-Plastic’, but rather to accelerate the transition to sustainable and eco-friendly plastic economy. It is expected that it will be evaluated as a historically successful multilateral environmental agreement in the future by establishing the Conference of Parties(COP) and other affiliated organizations, starting with the framework convention.