Plastics treaty talks to resume in August

Global plastics treaty negotiations will resume this summer.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop and international and legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including the marine environment, or INC-5.2, will take place Aug. 5-14 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

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Additionally, the resumed session will be preceded by regional consultations Aug. 4.

The first part of the fifth session, INC-5.1, took place Nov. 25-Dec. 1, 2024, in Busan, South Korea, and was meant to be the final in the series, wrapping a two-year process to create a legally binding document to stop plastic pollution.

Despite some measures of progress, familiar points of contention, such as the push to cap plastics production; the desire by some countries to establish a financial mechanism to implement the agreement; and how to manage “chemicals of concern” found in certain plastic products led to a weeklong stalemate.

According to UNEP, more than 3,300 delegates, including members representing more than 170 nations and observers from more than 440 organizations, took part in INC-5.1 meetings. Some environmental organizations claimed more than 220 fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists also attended the event.

During the session, a majority group of more than 100 countries from various regions, led by Mexico and Rwanda, stated they would not accept a treaty without binding global bans and phaseouts of harmful plastic products and chemicals of concern. A group of countries that includes China, Saudi Arabia and Russia, have called for focus to be applied to managing plastic scrap rather than caps on plastic production.

Ana Rocha, the director of global plastics policy at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), a global alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, nongovernmental organizations and individuals in more than 90 countries, says “the tides turned at INC-5” and the possibility of an ambitious plastics treaty is now more concrete than it’s ever been.

“At INC-5.2, governments must keep up the momentum and stay strong against fossil fuel interests in order to deliver the treaty that will keep us below 1.5 degrees,” Rocha says.

In particular, GAIA says member states must defend a provision for voting if consensus cannot be reached to ensure a democratic process where no one nation can block progress toward a treaty.