The Mandate to Advance Negotiations for a Plastics Treaty Still Stands — Despite Efforts to Undermine the Upcoming Negotiations
NAIROBI, Kenya, March 1, 2024 — The Ministerial Declaration of the Sixth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) was adopted earlier today. The declaration includes a reaffirmation of UNEA resolution 5/14 — the mandate to create the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) to advance a global plastics treaty. The reaffirmation comes despite an active but ultimately unsuccessful effort by the United States and petrostates to undermine the mandate.
David Azoulay, Director of the Center for International Environmental Law’s Environmental Health program, responded:
“We welcome the renewed commitment to engage constructively in the ongoing negotiation of an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. Unsurprisingly, the same Member States who have worked to derail and obstruct the plastics treaty negotiations resort to a backdoor effort to attempt to renegotiate the INC’s mandate. While this declaration has no legal bearing on the mandate for the INC’s work, reaffirming the mandate at UNEA-6 is a valuable political statement in the face of continued bad-faith engagement by the United States and petrostates who are trying every means to limit the ambition of the future treaty. Governments need to respect their previous commitments and listen to the independent scientists and communities around the world who are demanding ambitious action. They must right the ship ahead of INC-4 to ensure the negotiations in Ottawa do not end in failure.”
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