Global Plastics Treaty

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.

To finalize a global treaty that is fit for purpose and addresses plastic pollution across the lifecycle within two years, it may be useful to look to examples from recent negotiations, including the Rotterdam andMinamata Conventions, to understand potential pathways forward. 

The Global Plastic Treaty Africa Community Sensitisation Guidebook is a comprehensive resource designed to empower community-driven initiatives by enhancing the understanding of the Global Plastic Treaty and facilitating effective advocacy campaigns.

Finance will be critical to the success of the global plastics treaty. Adequate and predictable finance is a key element to a successful agreement. This policy brief explores various options for sourcing, managing, and disbursing finance.

This brief demonstrates the central role of plastic polymers in the full life cycle of plastics from supply chain and pollution perspectives. It looks at precedents to establish that the full life cycle approach mandated in UNEA Resolution 5/14 encompasses the production of plastics, understood as transforming raw materials into a specific substance — in this case, plastic polymers.

This brief aims to inform the plastic treaty negotiations by analyzing and comparing three models used in MEAs to control the production of specific substances or the emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG). Its goal is to draw lessons from these models and translate them into specific policy recommendations.

The pollution resulting from rampant overproduction of virgin plastics is irreversible, directly undermines our health, drives biodiversity loss, exacerbates climate change and risks generating large-scale harmful environmental changes. As the plastics pollution crisis continues to grow, so does the case for a global plastics treaty that tackles the issue head-on and seeks to reduce the production of virgin plastics.

The results of this survey demonstrate that there is overwhelming public support for the Global Plastics Treaty to cut plastic production, end single-use plastics and advance reuse-based solutions. This sends a strong message to the governments negotiating the Global Plastics Treaty.