Crafting a global plastics treaty

This chapter will critically examine the current international negotiations seeking to create a global plastics instrument. The UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA) has made plastic and microplastic waste the subject matter of two resolutions in 2014 and 2016, recognizing that the problem of plastic waste is a “rapidly increasing serious issue of global concern that needs an urgent global response.” The purpose of this chapter is to critically analyse the current effort of the international community in creating a potential global framework for dealing with plastic waste by UNEA-6 in 2024. It will first outline the stakeholder positions regarding the need and contours of an international plastics instrument necessary to resolve global plastic pollution, both for and against such a document. Then the various negotiation meetings fostered by UNEA on this issue starting in 2014 will be considered as to their effectiveness in providing a ‘roadmap’ for negotiations. Representatives at that meeting highlighted that the threat of marine litter, including plastics and microplastics, was a global issue of pressing concern, given the long period of decay of plastics, their potential for long-distance transport and their tendency to disintegrate into extremely harmful microparticles was an urgent issue that needed to be dealt with. It will then scrutinize the role played by the Ad hoc Open-ended Expert Group in driving the negotiating process forward. This section will focus in particular on the draft resolutions offered by Peru-Rwanda, India and Japan for potential adoption at the 2022 UNEA 5.2 Meeting as a basis for ongoing discussions to create a global plastic treaty.