GENEVA, Aug 8, 2025 — The Center for International Environmental Law joined networks and organizations from around the world in releasing the following statement:
Four days into the final Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, we are not on track to deliver a treaty that will protect people and nature. Enough is enough; something must change. On behalf of waste pickers, frontline communities, scientists, youth, women, businesses, non-governmental organisations around the world, we are calling on governments to step up. Fix the process, keep their promises, and finalize an effective treaty to end plastic pollution.
After three years of trying to work by consensus, the negotiations are now at a breaking point.
What was meant to be a global effort to solve the plastics crisis has stalled. As in the climate space, it’s the countries least responsible for the problem that are fighting hardest for an ambitious treaty, we see some of the countries least responsible for the plastics crisis holding the line for ambition while producers are in a race to the bottom, with some even questioning whether the treaty is about plastic.
This cannot continue. Member States must use every tool of multilateralism at their disposal and move forward with solutions that aren’t hostage to those defending the status quo.
Anything less will fall short of the ambition promised in UNEA resolution 5/14 — and fail the people and planet this treaty was meant to protect.
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