Global Plastics Treaty

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.

This library on the global plastics treaty provides a wealth of publications, websites, and communication tools related to the plastics treaty negotiations.

Bio-based and biodegradable plastics are often described as sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics. Critically, the use of bio-based carbon and of biodegradable plastics must not compromise the necessity to reduce the production of all plastics.

This interactive open source tool projects impacts of plastics policies using machine learning / artificial intelligence. Users can explore regionalized data about the production, use and fate of plastic and the effectiveness of potential policies world leaders could use to eradicate related pollution.