GLOBAL PLASTIC TREATY NEGOTIATIONS

WHAT'S AT STAKE IN GENEVA?

- S V KRISHNA CHAITANYA

AS the world converges in Geneva from August 5 to 14 for the resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2), hopes are pinned on reaching a breakthrough in what could be a defining moment for environmental diplomacy the world's first legally binding plastics treaty. If negotiators can land an agreement, it will be forwarded to a Diplomatic Conference of the Plenipotentiaries (DipCon) for formal signing and later ratification the critical steps that turn negotiated text into enforceable global law.

What's at stake?

The 2022 UN Environment Assembly mandate (UNEA 5/14) directed governments to negotiate an international legally binding instrument' to end plastic pollution on an ambitious timeline aimed at completion by end-2024. That deadline has slipped, and the Geneva session represents the last scheduled opportunity to pull a high-ambition deal together before momentum fades.

Talks stalled at the Busan meeting in late 2024, leaving behind a sprawling draft - the Revised Chair's Text - that runs 22 pages and carries more than 370 bracketed disagreements spanning production controls, chemicals of concern, financial support and the basic question of whether obligations should be binding globally or left to national discretion. Delay tactics, closed-door negotiating formats and repeated deferrals on the Rules of Procedure have compounded mistrust in the process, prompting calls for greater transparency as Geneva opens.

Without bold, binding measures, scientists warn that runaway production and poorly regulated downstream dumping will intensify ecosystem damage, climate risks and human exposure to toxics. Many countries pushing for ambition argue that deferring fixes to future meetings as has happened in other multilateral environmental agreements risks losing decades.