Highlights and images for 8 August 2025

“We have to get it done.” The magnitude of the effort needed to reach agreement on a new plastics treaty seemed to dawn on all delegates at the Palais de Nations on Friday, 8 August. Each article represents a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that must fit seamlessly into the broader treaty text, balancing both the common good and national interests.

At this meeting, delegates have a responsibility to align on overarching goals on reducing plastic pollution, while addressing specific challenges like whether there will be plastic production caps, how to limit the manufacture of problematic plastics, and how to ensure adequate financing. These articles must interlock logically, ensuring that the future treaty can be implemented seamlessly.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

To do this, delegations worked in a multitude of configurations on the fourth day of the resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) to develop an international legally binding instrument (ILBI) on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. Contact groups, informal groups, and “informal informals” all convened, focusing on specific articles, all in a bid to put together the puzzle of the future ILBI.

To get through the text, delegates shared views on the nature and composition of the implementation and compliance committee, before moving into details on national plans, reporting, and effectiveness evaluation. On reporting, some called to draw inspiration from the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which contains reporting formats in an annex. Delegates also discussed the periodicity and nature of effectiveness evaluations, with some arguing that they should not assess implementation and others opining they should assess the adequacy of obligations.

On exchange of information and public awareness, some stressed that information on the health and safety of humans and the environment should not be confidential and others pushed for encouraging businesses to share information on their activities.

With a looming deadline to submit text toward the compilation of an “assembled document” for discussion at a stocktaking plenary scheduled for Saturday, delegates were hard pressed to make progress. In the contact group on financial resources and mechanism, they were pleased to submit a new Co-Chairs' text to plenary. In other groups, tensions grew, as delegates held lengthy debates on what text to forward to plenary, with the Co-Chairs repeatedly reminding them that the forwarded text would be further negotiated in the coming days.

In the end, delegates agreed to forward to the plenary text reflecting the status of their work on different articles, which entailed either: text reflecting that provisions had not been addressed; the outcome documents from contact group settings; or snapshots of ongoing work in informal groups, along with footnotes explaining the status of work. Delegates are scheduled to meet in plenary on Saturday, 9 August.