Strong concerns over latest Global Plastics Treaty draft as negotiation deadline looms

The draft presented yesterday by the chair of INC-5.2 negotiations has removed the Global Plastics Treaty’s most impactful – and contentious – measures.

With one day left to come to an agreement, the draft proposal published yesterday appears to prioritise consensus over impact. Not only have mentions of a cap on the production of harmful plastics been removed, but the text no longer includes the words ‘emissions’, ‘chemicals’ or even ‘fossil fuels’.

This is after oil-producing countries including the US, Russia, India, Iran, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia on behalf of 22 Arab countries, stated that they would reject any agreement with a plastic production cap. Over 100 high-ambition countries are pushing for the measure, but it’s the voice of fossil fuel producers that can be felt through the new draft.

“After more than two and a half years of negotiations, this is the furthest we’ve been from finalising an effective treaty,” decried Zaynab Sadan, Global Plastics Policy Lead and Head of the WWF Delegation at INC-5.2. 

“At a bare minimum, the treaty must include binding global bans and phase outs of the most harmful products and chemicals of concern, product design requirements, a robust financial mechanism and aligned financial flows, as well as a mechanism to ensure the treaty can be strengthened over time through majority decision-making. Right now these essential elements are nowhere to be seen in the Chair’s text. This simply cannot stand.”

Text likely to be rejected by most ambitious nations

The sentiment was echoed by the most ambitious nations present in Geneva: Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Chile, Ghana, Canada, Norway, the UK and the EU all indicated that they would not consider adopting the text in its current form.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a membership Union composed of government and civil society organisations, also expressed serious concern. 

“[We] have analysed the 13 August Chair’s Text, and note that it fails to address primary plastic production limits, omits critical health protections, does not include text on biodiversity and ecosystems protections, dismisses the needs of multiple communities, SIDS, LDCs, Indigenous Peoples and youth, and reduces text from the 1 December Chair’s Text in a manner that is not in compliance with the parameters of UNEA Resolution 5/14. In light of this, the Chair's Text of 13 August 2025 is not understandable or acceptable. What could have become legally binding commitments to move our world forward, has been watered down to largely voluntary national measures  across 31 articles,” said Karine Siegwart, Senior Policy Advisor at IUCN's Centre for Policy and Law and Alexandra Harrington, UCN World Commission on Environmental Law and Chair of the WCEL Plastic Pollution Task Force.

Health impacts omitted from Global Plastics Treaty draft

All articles aiming to tackle the impacts of the plastic pollution crisis on humans and the planet’s health have also been removed – despite the well-timed publication of a damning study on plastics’ health costs by The Lancet last week. The respected medical journal warned that “plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1.5 trillion annually”.

“Governments and the Chair of these negotiations cannot continue to play into the hands of low ambition states in pursuit of consensus at all costs. People and nature all around the world suffering the effects of plastic pollution cannot wait for consensus. Every compromise made in the room harms everyone and everything in and outside of it,” added Sadan at WWF.