GLOBAL PLASTIC TREATY NEGOTIATIONS

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.

- S V Krishna Chaitanya @ Chennai

ly 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.

"Plastics harm human health with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations, including workers and children. We are only beginning to understand the presence of micro and nanoplastics in our bodies—found in blood, breast milk, brain, lungs, heart, liver, and more," said Margaret Spring, Chief Science and Conservation Officer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Current positions Negotiations are polarised. A bloc of more than 100 countries restated their 'red lines' at the close of Busan and reiterated them in the Nice Declaration on the margins of the UN Oceans Conference in July—calling for ambition on production controls and decision-making rules that avoid paralysis.

Opposing them are major plastics-producing and fossil-fuel-aligned economies—including influential voices within the BRICS+ grouping—that have resisted global caps and argued to narrow the treaty to downstream waste management, a move critics say would gut its effectiveness.

The Busan outcome nonetheless gave negotiators a common launch pad, which is the Revised Chair's Text, now the working basis for all Geneva talks.