No agreement reached on Global Plastics Treaty at INC 5.2
Talks failed to reach a consensus on key issues, including limitations on virgin plastic production.
The resumed fifth session of the International Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution (INC-5.2), was scheduled to take place from 5 to 14 August in Geneva, Switzerland. Negotiations ran through the night and into the morning of 15 August; however ultimately failed to deliver a treaty text.
The event was attended by over 2,000 observers, including representatives of national and regional governments, industry lobbyists, members of the scientific community and NGOs.
The resumed session was called last December, after INC 5.1, held in Busan, South Korea, failed to reach an agreement. This was due to points of divergence between states on key issues, including the phase out of harmful plastic products, limitations on plastic production and whether treaty measures should be binding or voluntary.
These same issues led to a deadlock in negotiations at the resumed session in Geneva, with the contention remaining between high ambition states demanding a full lifecycle approach and those seeking to limit the scope of the treaty to waste management.
Key Takeaways:
- After two and a half years of negotiations, a legally binding agreement was due to be finalised in Geneva
- As in previous INC sessions, major rifts were evident between states on key issues
- A majority of countries, including the UK, have called for ambitious and binding targets covering the full plastics life cycle
- However, the like-minded bloc, consisting primarily of fossil fuel-producing states, has sought a narrower treaty focused on waste management
- Despite negotiations running into overtime, no consensus was reached, and the session closed without an agreement
- Where and when negotiations will resume is currently unclear
History of the INC
In recent years, there has been growing concern over the environmental and health implications of plastic pollution. An estimated 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic material have been produced globally since the 1950s, of which 7 billion tonnes have become waste. When released into the environment, plastic waste has long-lasting effects across the entire ecosystem, with microplastics being found in every part of our planet, from water, soil and air to human arteries.
In this context, UN member states endorsed a resolution to end plastic pollution at the 2022 UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi. The resolution outlined a commitment to develop an international treaty on plastic pollution by 2024 and established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to produce a text. INC 1 took place in Uruguay in late 2022 and was followed by sessions in France, Kenya and Canada before what was due to be the final fifth session in South Korea.
Across these negotiations, discord emerged between states on fundamental questions of scope and implementation, particularly whether the treaty would cover the full plastics supply chain, including production and design, or focus only on end-of-life plastics.
INC-3 saw the formal announcement of the ‘like-minded’ group, a bloc of primarily petrochemical-producing states that oppose restrictions on the upstream production of feedstocks for plastic manufacturing.
As the INC operates based on consensus, divergence between the like-minded group and more ambitious states poses a serious challenge for the development of a treaty text. Delegates were unable to find sufficient common ground to push through an agreement at INC 5.1, though a Chair's Text summarising potential options was agreed to form the basis of resumed negotiations.
In the time since, over 90 states, including the UK, announced their support for the Ministerial Declaration, The Nice wake up call for an ambitious plastics treaty. The declaration called for the adoption of a global target to reduce the production and consumption of plastic and emphasised the importance of improving the design of plastic products for human and environmental health.
Key events of INC-5.2
Commencing the session on 5 August, INC Chair Luis Vayas drew attention to the Chair’s Text produced at the end of INC 5.1 and highlighted that this would form the basis of negotiations. Chair Vayas also proposed that discussions continue under the framework of the four ‘contact groups’, covering different elements of the treaty, which were first introduced in the November session.
Over the first three days, delegates met in these contact groups, as well as closed-door ‘informals’, to carry out detailed negotiations of various treaty articles. Among the most contentious issues were scope and plastic production, covered by contact group 1, and the financial mechanism, covered by contact group 3.
The progress of these discussions was fed back to Chair Vayas on Friday, 8 August and formed the basis of an 'Assembled Text' which sought to represent the state of negotiations as they stood. The text contained nearly 1,500 square brackets, each representing language or content that remained undecided. Compared to the Chair’s Text on which negotiations in the session originally began, the number of unresolved issues had grown dramatically.
At the stocktaking plenary on 9 August, Chair Vayas lamented that insufficient progress had been made. Delegates from the like-minded group stressed that consensus must be reflected in all decisions, while some states, as well as representatives of the NGO sector, expressed concern that the need for consensus was stalling progress.
Negotiations on the Assembled Text continued over the following days, and on Wednesday afternoon, Vayas put forward a Chair’s Draft Proposal, which was intended to ‘offer an attempt at a compromise’. The new text did not contain any reference to human health or plastics production and was heavily criticised in the stocktaking plenary session that afternoon.
The EU highlighted that the draft fell short of the UN Environment Assembly resolution under which the INC was established, as it did not contain any binding or concrete commitments. Several countries, including the United Kingdom, called for a new text to form the basis of final negotiations. There was also major backlash from civil society, with the WWF stating that ‘after more than two and a half years of negotiations, this is the furthest we’ve been from finalising an effective treaty.’
On Thursday, 14 August, the last official day of negotiations, states met in a Heads of Delegation consultation, as well as regional talks and small groups. Discussions ran late into the night, and it was not until the early hours of Friday morning that a revised text was released. On this new draft, Vayas commented that his consultations with delegates had indicated that to move forward, consensus was needed on four key areas- production, finance, plastic products and decision making.
The revised text, still containing over 100 brackets, was discussed at another Heads of Delegation meeting that commenced at 2:00 am; however, no further action was taken. Chair Vayas officially announced that no agreement was reached and the committee had concluded its work at the final plenary meeting on Friday morning.
Next steps
The path forward for a Global Plastics Treaty is unclear. Unlike after INC-5.1, no single text was agreed to form the basis of future negotiations, nor was there an agreed-upon timeframe for when the next steps would be taken. Some delegates expressed the view that the methods adopted at INC sessions to date have failed and that procedural reform is needed to achieve success in the future.
Despite uncertainty, many states reiterated their commitment to achieving a strong agreement. Speaking at the closing plenary, the UK delegation said they were ‘incredibly disappointed’ with the outcome but remained ‘absolutely committed to delivering an effective treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics.’
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