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.
The negotiations about the treaty’s design, reach, and function began first in an ad hoc Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) in Dakar, Senegal, which focused on developing rules of procedures for the negotiation, and subsequently in the first two Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) meetings — INC-1 and INC-2 — respectively in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in November-December 2022 and Paris, France, in May 2023.
The third meeting — INC-3 — will take place between November 13 and 19, 2023, in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Center for International Environmental Law has produced a number of materials ahead of the negotiations, including the following:
Annotated Zero Draft of the Plastics Treaty
The Zero Draft of the future plastics treaty provides multiple options that Member States must evaluate during the upcoming negotiations. To accomplish this, it is critical to understand the implications and considerations of the options while reading the document. The Annotated Zero Draft of the Plastics Treaty provides an overview of the text, while noting items that may be missing, areas that need further exploration, and references to other Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).
National Implementation Plans and National Actions Plans: Key Elements to Consider in the Context of a Treaty to End Plastic Pollution
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.
Tackling Subsidies for Plastic Production: Key Considerations for the Plastics Treaty Negotiations
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.
Implementation, Compliance, and Reporting: Key Elements to Consider in the Context of a Treaty to End Plastic Pollution
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.
Reducing Plastic Production to Achieve Climate Goals: Key Considerations for the Plastics Treaty Negotiations
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.
Submissions to the UN Environment Programme
Compilation of Key Terms Relevant for the Negotiation of a Treaty to End Plastic Pollution
This document aims to provide delegates with a list of definitions of key terms that could appear in the treaty or come up during its negotiation. We do not make specific recommendations, rather we compile existing definitions. However, we do recommend that the OECD definition of plastic pollution be used as the working definition for the negotiation.
Elements Not Discussed at INC-2
There is no need for a dedicated article on scope and principles in the treaty. The scope is already agreed from the UNEA resolution which set up the mandate for the treaty negotiation. This submission clarifies that and gives more details on certain principles that we believe should be operationalized into the treaty.
Read the submission on scope and principles.
Input on the Potential Areas of Intersessional Work to Inform the Work of INC-3
CIEL believes that intersessional work on chemicals is essential to the treaty’s negotiation. However, most, if not all, of the resources needed to develop criteria for restrictions of chemicals and polymers has already been published. This submission highlights and summarizes some of the relevant reports on this topic, to inform intersessional work.