Negotiations (INC 5-2) for a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution: a failure in Geneva!

The resolution to draft the treaty was adopted in March 2022 by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).

Five sessions of intergovernmental negotiations (INC) have already taken place since November 2022, with meetings in Uruguay, France, Kenya, and Busan (South Korea). A meeting was held from 5 to 14 August 2025 in Geneva to continue the negotiations. The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) took part in this important meeting.

Negotiations for a global treaty on plastic pollution, launched in 2022, failed to reach an agreement at the fifth session held in Geneva in August 2025, due to a lack of consensus between oil-producing countries, which oppose binding measures to reduce production, and countries calling for an ambitious treaty covering the entire life cycle of plastic. Discussions are set to continue in an attempt to overcome the deadlock and reach a legally binding agreement before the end of 2025.

As for the next stage of the plastics negotiations, it can at least be argued that continuing the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) using the methods employed in Busan (in November 2024) and Geneva (in August 2025) can only lead to the same result.

With a view to the next UNEA, scheduled for December 2025, some countries would be prepared to reformulate the mandate, or at least to clarify, if not the scope, then at least the content of the processes. But others are concerned in advance about the risks associated with returning to the UNEA.