As plastic pollution becomes ever more visible both on land and in waterways, calls to tackle the mounting plastic waste crisis have reverberated around the world. Of the approximately 10 billion tonnes of plastic produced since the 1950s, studies show that over 8 billion tonnes are now waste, with between 10-15 million tonnes of plastic leaking into the marine environment each year. This number is expected to more than triple by 2050.
The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), in resolution 5/14 in March 2022, requested the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director to convene an intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic. The resolution established an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC).
Following a meeting of an Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) to lay the necessary groundwork for the INC, which convened in Dakar, Senegal at the end of May 2022, the INC began its work on 29 November 2022 in Punta del Este, Uruguay. INC-1 requested the INC Secretariat to prepare a document ahead of INC-2 that would outline options for the instrument’s possible elements, based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastics, including possible objectives, substantive provisions including core obligations, control measures, and voluntary approaches, implementation measures, and means of implementation, and including both legally binding and voluntary measures.
INC-2 in May-June 2023 considered multiple elements that could eventually be included in the future treaty. In November 2023, INC-3 considered a “zero draft” of the new treaty. INC-4 in April 2024 focused deliberations on a revised Draft Text. Delegations’ preferences diverged on scope, financing, extended producer responsibility, whether to include any provisions on primary plastic polymers, how to address chemicals of concern in plastic products, and product design, focusing on recyclability and reusability of plastic products.
In what was supposed to be the final round of negotiations at INC-5 from 25 November – 2 December 2024 in Busan, Republic of Korea, delegates were unable to finalize a treaty. Delegates engaged in difficult discussions on whether plastic products and chemicals of concern and plastic supply and production were within the INC’s mandate. Limited progress was also made in discussions on finance. Overarching to all of this was whether the future treaty would include mandatory or voluntary measures, and whether the measures adopted would apply at the global or national levels.
Negotiations resumed at INC-5.2 in August 2025, but delegates were still divided on the same topics and could not reach consensus and could not adopt a new treaty. It was not clear at the end of the meeting when and if negotiations would resume.