In 2022, United Nations Member States adopted a mandate to negotiate an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. The mandate sets out a goal for the plastics treaty to be negotiated before the end of 2024.
In November 2024, Member States will come together to participate in the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) that is tasked with advancing the plastics treaty. INC-5 will be held from November 25 – December 1, 2024, in Busan, Republic of Korea. It serves as the final scheduled session.
The Center for International Environmental Law has produced a number of materials ahead of the negotiations that you may find below.
Tools to Help Understand the Treaty Text
Negotiation Dynamics and Timelines
Treaty Design, Function, and Implementation
Plastic Production and Product Design
Tools to Help Understand the Treaty Text
Comparison Table of Future Elements of the Plastics Treaty
This table outlines the evolution of the drafts of the future plastics treaty, including the Chair’s non-papers that were prepared in advance of INC-5.
Annotated Revised Zero Draft of the Plastics Treaty
Compilation of Key Terms Relevant for the Negotiation of a Treaty to End Plastic Pollution
International treaties frequently include definitions of relevant terms. Definitions of key terms can play an important role in facilitating and supporting treaty negotiations and are often critical for implementing a treaty after its ratification. The Compilation examines over 100 terms that may be relevant for the plastics treaty, offering examples of where those terms appear in other Multilateral Environmental Agreements, as well as the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and other bodies such as the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) and the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO).
Negotiation Dynamics and Timelines
Negotiation Timelines of International Legal Instruments
he United Nations Environment Assembly resolution that kickstarted the process of negotiating a future plastics treaty sets out an ambitious timeline, with the goal of finishing by the end of 2024. With the end of the negotiations nearing and a substantial amount of work still needed to finalize the treaty before it can be ratified, it is critical to look at other models for extending negotiating time.
Negotiation Timelines of International Legal Instruments: Key Considerations for the Future Plastics Treaty looks at historical precedents for negotiating timelines, drawing from the Minamata and Rotterdam Conventions, as well as BBNJ.
Read: Negotiation Timelines of International Legal Instruments
Obstructionist Tactics in Decision-Making
The INC process has been riddled with questions about decision-making from the beginning. Heading into INC-4, a small handful of countries continue to insist that voting should not be used to decide on substantive matters and are blocking the final adoption of the INC Rules of Procedure unless the possibility of a vote on substantive matter is deleted. The absence of clear decision-making and the possibility of resolving issues by voting favors the positions of the Members most reluctant to take necessary actions to end plastic pollution. Obstructionist Tactics in Decision-Making is designed to provide an overview of the current landscape regarding decision-making in the INC and the tactics countries are employing in those efforts.
Read Obstructionist Tactics in Decision-Making.
Treaty Design, Function, and Implementation
Scope and Limits of Decisions by the Conference of the Parties
The governing bodies of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are often known as the Conference of the Parties (COP). COPs are frequently given the mandate to “review, evaluate and adopt decisions related to the implementation of the treaty; consider and take any action necessary to achieve the objectives of the treaty.” While this text may make it seem that the COP can take any action, the question of what the COP can and cannot decide is more complex.
Scope and Limits of Decisions by the Conference of the Parties: Key Considerations for the Future Plastics Treaty provides examples of the kinds of actions that COPs typically take and contrasts them with the actions that need to be accomplished through the adoption of amendments to a treaty or the adoption of new annexes.
Read Scope and Limits of Decisions by the Conference of the Parties and download a visual overview.
Structure and Elements of International Legal Instruments
Decisions about how a treaty is structured impacts the treaty’s initial text and what will need to be decided in future agreements, protocols, and annexes. Structure and Elements of International Legal Instruments: Key Considerations for the Future Plastics Treaty provides an analysis of different options for treaty design and the risks associated with each. This issue brief examines the three principal types of treaties: substantive (or specific), framework, and hybrid conventions, providing lessons learned from previous multilateral environmental agreements such as the Montreal Protocol and the Basel Convention. It also outlines the potential risks and benefits of different approaches and provisions.
Read: Structure and Elements of International Legal Instruments and download a visual overview.
Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments
Final provisions — the technical provisions that help describe how a treaty will enter into force, be ratified, and undergo future revisions — are critical for a future treaty’s success. The brief Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments: Key Considerations for the Future Plastics Treaty provides insight and analysis into how multilateral environmental agreements, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Basel Convention, and Convention on Biological Diversity have addressed final provisions and it offers takeaways for negotiators working on the future plastics treaty.
The brief also discusses other potential topics that, depending on the structure of the future plastics treaty, may need to be considered as part of the final provisions, such as the adoption and amendment of protocols and the treatment of non-parties.
Read Final Provisions of International Legal Instruments.
Implementation, Compliance, and Reporting
Treaties provide obligations for States to undertake individual or joint action to implement international legal instruments. Implementation typically refers to the process by which countries establish national laws and policies that reflect treaty obligations. Measures can range from national implementation plans (NIPs) to periodic assessments, compliance provisions and mechanisms, and national reporting. This brief outlines compliance provisions and mechanisms in other Multilateral Environmental Agreements and provides a list of key recommendations to inform the negotiation of a plastics treaty. It argues that negotiators should consider compliance while developing substantive obligations, national plans, and reporting.
Read Implementation, Compliance, and Reporting.
National Implementation Plans and National Actions Plans
Treaties, including multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), provide obligations for States to undertake either individual or joint action to implement international legal instruments. Implementation refers to the process by which countries establish national policies that reflect their treaty obligations. This brief clarifies the difference between three common implementation measures: national implementation plans (NIPs), national action plans (NAPs), and nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The brief provides a list of key recommendations to inform the negotiation of a plastics treaty, and concludes that far from being mutually exclusive, NIPs and NAPs should be seen as complementary forms of implementation of the future plastics treaty.
Read National Implementation Plans and National Action Plans.
Plastic Production and Product Design
Plastic Polymers under the Full Life Cycle Approach
Legal Models to Control Primary Plastic Polymer Production
Current and projected levels of plastic production are severely undermining any potential solution to end plastic pollution. To effectively address the climate crisis, safeguard human health, ensure the enjoyment of human rights, and mitigate biodiversity loss, the future plastics treaty must control and reduce the production of primary plastic polymers. Parties to other Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) have previously reached agreements to address pollution at its source. These agreements typically adopt control measures and obligations aiming to phase down or phase out the production of specific substances. Legal Models to Control Primary Plastic Polymer Production provides an overview of control models in other MEAs and outlines lessons for the plastics treaty.
Read Legal Models to Control Primary Plastic Polymer Production
Reducing Plastic Production to Achieve Climate Goals
The report underscores the urgent need to address the climate impact of surging plastic production, which could consume a substantial portion of the Earth’s remaining carbon budget if it triples by 2050. To combat climate change effectively, it calls for ambitious obligations within the global plastics treaty negotiations, specifically targeting and reducing global plastic production, given that 90% of emissions from plastics arise from raw material extraction and production processes.
Read Reducing Plastic to Achieve Climate Goals.
Tackling Subsidies for Plastic Production
Fiscal incentives and subsidies for the production of primary plastics help to exacerbate the plastic pollution crisis by artificially reducing the cost of plastics. While there are subsidies that directly go to the production of plastic precursors, many are indirect, going to fossil fuels. For the future plastics treaty to comprehensively address the entire life cycle of plastics, it must address subsidies.
To understand how subsidies may be addressed in the treaty, it is essential to craft a well-developed, balanced, and comprehensive policy framework, informed by existing disciplines and approaches in both trade law and international environmental agreements. Tackling Subsidies for Plastic Production: Key Considerations for the Plastics Treaty Negotiations seeks to clarify what constitutes a subsidy, provides examples from other international agreements, and offers key recommendations for negotiators.
Read Tackling Subsidies for Plastic Production.
Beyond Recycling: Reckoning with Plastics in a Circular Economy
Beyond Recycling: Reckoning with Plastics in a Circular Economy first gives an overview of the differing definitions and understandings of the ‘circular economy,’ revealing how many of them fail to consider the resource use and externalities across the full plastics life cycle and supply chain, focusing rather disproportionately on waste management and disposal.
Read Beyond Recycling: Reckoning with Plastics in a Circular Economy.
Trade
Trade Provisions in Multilateral Environmental Agreements
Plastics trade is an essential component of discussions to develop an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. Accordingly, trade provisions must be included in the future plastics treaty. “Non-Party Trade Provisions in Multilateral Environmental Agreements” examines how trade has been incorporated into other MEAs and provides lessons for plastics.
Read Trade Provisions in Multilateral Environmental Agreements
Non-Party Trade Provisions in Multilateral Environmental Agreements
It is common for Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) to include so-called non-party provisions. These provisions typically set out how a party to a treaty should interact with ‘non-party’ States, promote the ratification of the agreement and deal with the specific challenges presented by non-parties. Our brief “Non-Party Trade Provisions in Multilateral Environmental Agreements: Key Elements for Consideration in the Context of a Treaty to End Plastic Pollution” provides an introduction to trade provisions involving non-parties in the context of the future treaty to end plastic pollution.
Read Non-Party Trade Provisions in Multilateral Environmental Agreements
WTO Rules and Key Elements for Consideration in the Context of a Treaty to End Plastic Pollution
Trade is an essential aspect of the plastic crisis that led to the adoption of a mandate to develop an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. Plastic feedstocks, polymers, additives, plastic pellets, plastic products, and waste are largely traded internationally and the liberalization of trade in those products supports the rise in production and consumption of plastics, accelerating the plastic crisis. Additionally, trade in plastics acts as a conveyor belt for plastic pollution, including micro- and nanoplastic pollution around the world. The need to address the trade-related aspects of plastic pollution has been recognized by WTO members of the Dialogue on Plastic Pollution at the WTO. The Dialogue on Plastic Pollution has incorporated the reduction of plastics trade as one of its main work streams. This brief examines the question of consistency or compatibility of the incoming plastics treaty with WTO rules, with the understanding that the treaty negotiation process is still very much ongoing. It also provides key recommendations for future framing of the plastic treaty’s terms to address the essential interlinkages between plastic pollution and international trade in advance of INC-2. The brief was produced in collaboration with IUCN and CIEL.
Read the WTO Rules and Key Elements for Consideration
More resources to follow