August 7, 2024
All governments agree that the plastic pollution challenge is a matter of urgency. We strongly encourage UN Member States to work towards concrete outcomes at INC-5 in Busan, Republic of Korea, in November 2024.
With limited time left for negotiations, reaching an agreement on everything at INC-5 may be challenging. Given this, we have developed a Roadmap towards an effective Global Plastics Treaty that is fit for purpose. Our ‘Treaty On A Page’ proposal highlights critical elements of our Vision Statement on which we ask governments to align on as an ambitious starting point to address plastic pollution. We would like to see these combined with a process for further strengthening the initial treaty through future decisions at Conference of the Parties.
This requires retaining a full lifecycle approach in the Global Plastics Treaty covering all relevant aspects of the UNEA resolution 5/14, without the need to decide on all details in Busan. At INC-5 we need a strong political commitment to put the right structures in place that allow us to develop further work on the immediate priorities, as well as to continuously improve targets and measures to be implemented under the treaty over time.
At INC-5 we need an initial agreement that the Global Plastics Treaty includes - as a minimum - the following critical elements:
We know that a voluntary, fragmented and non-specific set of policy measures determined differently in each country will add significant barriers and costs to implement the necessary changes at scale. Businesses want a legally binding treaty that tackles the entire lifecycle of plastic products, underpinned by harmonised regulation.
+20 Global CEOs call on governments to agree on an ambitious and actionable treaty to end plastic pollution.
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.