No agreement yet on global plastics treaty

Abstract

In 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly voted to establish the world’s first legally binding international treaty to end plastic pollution — with the goal of having it finalized by the end of 2024. In December 2024 in Busan, South Korea, the intergovernmental negotiating committee met for the fifth, and what was supposed to be final, round of talks. They did not leave with an agreement as hoped. Two main coalitions, with opposing environmental and economic desires, are at the heart of the impasse. On one side of the divide is the so-called High Ambition Coalition: more than 100 member states that are impatient for strict measures, fortified by support from scientists, certain businesses and public opinion. On the other side are a handful of primarily oil-producing countries whose economies are structured around fossil fuels, bolstered by corporations with similar vested interests. Whereas the former group is eager for regulations on the entire plastic life cycle — including, and even especially, upstream plastic production — the latter group opposes production caps and prefers to focus on downstream waste management and recycling instead. The committee will reconvene sometime in 2025.