Global Plastics Treaty

With the final round of negotiations of the Global Plastics Treaty approaching, this industry landscape overview analyses the dynamic around chemical recycling/recovery over recent years in Europe. Among the overview takeaways is the industry’s acknowledgement that pyrolysis is not ready to help tackle plastic waste and the climate crisis.

The website informs about the process and negotiation rounds of the International Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including timelines, documents, outcomes, and resources.

This paper articulates the economic and financial basis for establishing a cap on global plastics production. The production cap, once adopted as part of the final legally binding agreement, is expected to serve as the linchpin to end plastics pollution.

This report models whether a virgin plastic production reduction target of 40% by 2040 (40×40) could keep the plastics industry within a 1.5°C carbon budget. It outlines the methodology used to predict how the global economy would respond to a 40×40 target, including modeling different scenarios based on business-as-usual (BAU) demand and reduced-demand scenarios. 

Just before INC5, this booklet gives an overview of negotiation priorities and challenges. The global treaty must not condemn our planet and communities to runaway climate change fuelled by unchecked petrochemical expansion, the collapse of ecosystems saturated with plastic pollution, and avoidable disease from exposure to microplastics and plastic chemicals.

Sachets are a significant source of plastic pollution. This 4-pager looks at sachets in the context of the Global Plastics Treaty and explores how we can pivot to real, systemic solutions like reuse and refill systems.

This brief aims to provide examples of actions typically taken by the COP through decisions and to contrast them with actions that generally require the adoption of amendments to the treaty or its annexes or the adoption of new annexes, which have procedures distinct from those of a COP decision.

This brief examines the question of consistency or compatibility of the plastics treaty with WTO rules. 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.

Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) aim to address environmental issues of global concern by creating uniform and streamlined approaches and rules that apply to all parties. This brief provides an introduction to trade provisions involving non-parties.

Given the importance of plastic trade, it will be essential to recognize the contribution and role of trade in plastic pollution and to ensure that the treaty includes trade-related measures as core obligations in order to end plastic pollution.