Concerns Over Transparency and Procedure
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 13 August 2025
Geneva, Switzerland– With just one more day left of the plastics treaty negotiations, countries and civil society universally rejected the Chair’s latest proposed text as an unacceptable basis for further negotiations. The new text represents the lowest common denominator, catering to petro-states and the fossil fuel industry instead of the vast majority of aligned countries*– and most notably excludes the article on reducing plastic production, flouting the treaty mandate to address the full life-cycle of plastic.
Ana Rocha, GAIA Global Plastics Policy Lead stated, “This new text sends a clear message to the world: we do not care about your health. We do not care about the science. We do not care about human rights. We do not care about your future. We only care about consensus.”
“The Chair’s text is a clear reflection of a weak process, and the provisions do not provide meaningful ways to end plastic pollution,” says Mohamed Kamal, Greenish Foundation, Egypt.
Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, Head of the Panama delegation stated of the text, “Our redlines and redlines of the majority of countries represented in this room were not only stomped, they were spat on and they were burned…This is not about closing a treaty at any cost. It is about closing a wound that we’re leaving open in people’s lungs, in our rivers, in our oceans. But the text presented here makes that wound fatal and we will not accept it. This is repulsive. It is not ambition, it is surrender, and we will not sell out future generations for a text as weak as this.”
The Chair’s process for creating this latest draft reflects the lack of transparency and democratic processes that have come to define his conduct over the past INCs. While most Member States were kept busy in Contact Groups and informals, a new text was crafted, moving the needle of ambition below the bare minimum that anyone expected to see.
SiPeng of C4 Center in Malaysia stated, “These back-handed maneuvers are undemocratic, and leave civil society and ambitious Member States in the dark.”
The plenary, in which Member States criticized the low ambition of the text for over three hours, ended with regional consultations to be followed by a Heads of Delegation meeting. “No treaty is better than a bad treaty,” stated Thais Carvajal of Alianza Basura Cero Ecuador. “If we come out of INC-5.2 without an agreed upon text, it means that ambitious Member States stood up and refused to compromise to fossil fuel interests. If they take that brave step, civil society will have their backs.”
Note to Editor:
Join Member State Delegates and members of civil society from the Global South for a press conference on Global South ambition in the plastics treaty negotiations Thursday, August 14, 2025 at 11am Geneva Time in Building E, Room XXVII (27). Speakers include Member State representatives and civil society. For livestream, register here.
*The following ambitious measures with strong international support were cut from the Chair’s text (amongst others):
- Over 100 countries support plastic production cuts
- Over 100 countries support a binding product and harmful chemicals phaseouts
- Almost 130 countries support a dedicated article on health
- Over 150 countries support a strong financial mechanism
See recordings of Member State interventions here.
Press contacts:
Global: Claire Arkin | Claire@no-burn.org | +1 (973) 444 4869
Regional:
Africa: Carissa Marnce | carissa@no-burn.org | +27 76 934 6156
Latin America: Camila Aguilera | Camila@no-burn.org | +56 9 8913 6198
Asia & the Pacific: Robi Kate Miranda | robi@no-burn.org I +63 927 585 4157
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GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries. With our work we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, zero waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped.