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Marine Plastic Pollution: What Will Happen to the Global Plastics Treaty?
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In 2025, world leaders failed to agree on a binding treaty to limit plastic production and phase out harmful chemicals in plastics, largely due to pushback from oil and gas-producing countries and industry lobbyists. This matters for your health because without limits on plastic production, exposure to plastic pollution and the chemicals and microplastics that come from it, found in our water, food, and even our bodies, will likely keep increasing. The paper argues that stronger, fairer global rules are still urgently needed to curb this growing health and environmental threat.
Abstract The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee failed to secure a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty at the second session of INC-5 in 2025 in Geneva. This failure to reach an agreement, highlights the deep geopolitical and economic divisions that limit multilateral environmental agreements. More than 70 countries in the High-Ambition Coalition supported upstream interventions, such as capping plastic production and phasing out hazardous chemical additives. However, fossil-fuel producing member states (members of the Like-Minded Group) supported by petrochemical lobbyists, pushed to limit the text of the treaty to downstream measures, such as improvements to recycling and better waste management. This failure to reach an agreement to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, carries profound global implications. Increasing plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, lost trust in the United Nations Environment Programme, that rely on consensus, and the growing influence of petrochemical lobbies may end up resulting in a weak, voluntary agreement rather than a legally binding one. Looking to the future may require reforming negotiation procedures that do not require consensus, making evidence-based policy making a priority, supporting equity and just transition principles, and leveraging regional leadership and civil society mobilization. Despite this failure, the urgency of the plastics crisis underscores the necessity of renewed global commitment to an ambitious and equitable Global Plastics Treaty.
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Process without progress: the sixth session of negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution (INC-5.2)
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In August 2025, countries met in Geneva to try to finalize a global treaty limiting plastic pollution, but talks stalled without an agreement due to disagreements over key issues like limiting plastic production and regulating harmful chemical additives. This matters because plastics—and the microplastics and chemicals they shed—are found in our food, water, and even our bodies, and without binding international rules, the flow of plastic pollution (and the health risks that come with it) will likely keep growing unchecked.
Mechanisms for Combating Marine Plastic Pollution in International Marine Law
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This paper reviews the international laws meant to stop plastic pollution in our oceans and finds they're falling short — current agreements lack real enforcement power. That matters for your health because ocean plastic breaks down into microplastics that end up in seafood, drinking water, and eventually our bodies, and the researchers argue we need a stronger, legally binding global treaty to actually get this problem under control.
Mechanisms for Combating Marine Plastic Pollution in International Marine Law
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This paper reviews the international laws meant to stop plastic pollution in our oceans and finds they're not strong enough to actually solve the problem. That matters for your health because ocean plastic breaks down into microplastics that end up in seafood, drinking water, and even our bodies—and the researchers argue we need a stronger, legally binding global treaty to fix the gaps that let this pollution continue unchecked.
Navigating the plastic crisis
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Global talks meant to tackle plastic pollution have stalled, largely because countries are struggling to agree on shared goals amid political division. This matters for your health because plastic waste—including the microplastics turning up in our water, food, and even our bodies—will keep piling up until nations find common ground and commit to real action together.
The Failure of the Global Plastics Treaty Conference and Its Implications for Developing Countries
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This study analyses the factors behind the failure of the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in 2024-2025, examining conflicts between developed and developing countries, the plastics industry, and civil society over commitments to reduce plastic production and pollution. The authors argue that the treaty failure disproportionately harms developing countries that lack regulatory capacity to unilaterally address plastic and microplastic pollution entering their environments.
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