November 10, 2023
The journey towards developing an ambitious, effective and legally binding Global Plastics Treaty started with the adoption of Resolution 5/14 at the 6th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in March 2022.
With the release of the ‘Zero draft text of the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution’ in September 2023, the multilateral negotiation process has now entered a new phase that allows governments to discuss the core obligations and means of implementation that we need to have in the treaty to address plastic pollution at a global scale. It is encouraging to see all of our policy recommendations are, to some extent, reflected in the structure of the ‘Zero Draft’.
With just one year of negotiating time left, the INC must ensure that key provisions in the treaty become fully operational from the very beginning, with the governing body able to further develop annexes over time.
We have identified five stages of the journey towards the final treaty text, which we hope to see being negotiated by the end of 2024. Throughout the next year, for each of these six focus areas, we will update the visualisations below to illustrate our view of the progress made to date, and of the stages that negotiators still have to work on:
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Explore our comprehensive assessment of the ‘Zero Draft’.
Chemicals and polymers of concern
Problematic and avoidable plastic products
Reduce, Reuse, Refill and repair of plastics and plastic products
Product design and performance
Extended Producer Responsibility
Waste management
The draft treaty text includes a (sub-)section related to this focus area, but the proposed provisions do not reflect the Business Coalition’s recommendations.
The draft treaty text proposes provisions that are at least partly aligned with the Business Coalition recommendations, but some major changes still need to be incorporated and/ or it lacks the necessary references to develop technical specifications to make them meaningful, operational and enforceable.
The draft treaty text proposes provisions that are mostly aligned to the Business Coalition’s recommendations, and it references the need to develop technical specifications to ensure harmonised implementation.
The draft treaty text proposes provisions that are aligned to the Business Coalition’s recommendations, and it requires technical specifications to be adopted by the INC or the future governing body to help governments to implement harmonised and effective regulations.
The draft treaty text contains both the legal provisions and the technical specifications needed to help governments to implement harmonised and effective regulations in line with the Business Coalition’s recommendations.