Way Forward for Treaty Negotiations Left Unclear
Civil Society Stands with Countries Choosing People Over Politics
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 15 August 2025
Geneva, Switzerland– At the close of the plastics treaty negotiations (INC-5.2), ambitious Member States held strong under immense pressure and a broken process, and refused to end INC-5.2 with a weak treaty that would have failed to address the existential threat of plastic and repeated the fatal errors of the Paris climate negotiations.
Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) states, “No treaty is better than a bad treaty. We stand with the ambitious majority who refused to back down and accept a treaty that disrespects the countries that are truly committed to this process and betrays our communities and our planet. Once again, negotiations collapsed, derailed by a chaotic and biased process that left even the most engaged countries struggling to be heard. A broken, non-transparent process will never deliver a just outcome. It’s time to fix it—so people and the planet can finally have a fighting chance.”
Despite the fact that the vast majority of countries agreed on the need to cut plastic production, phase out harmful chemicals, ensure a Just Transition especially for waste pickers, establish a new dedicated fund, and make decisions through a 2/3 majority voting when consensus cannot be reached, among other ambitious measures, a small group of petro-states calling themselves the “like-minded countries” sabotaged each round of talks by insisting on consensus to block ambition, and threatening to trap negotiations in procedural debate if Member States ever called for a vote.
The Chair and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) failed to set the table for equitable and effective negotiations. Huge numbers of fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists swamped the talks while civil society was frequently shut out. The Chair played favorites with the low-ambition minority, while frequently ignoring high ambition countries from the Global South. When powerful countries wielded their money, political muscle, and influence to bully these nations into retreat, the silence from the podium was deafening. This is not the spirit of multilateralism —it was coercion.
“We cannot confuse procedural agreement with meaningful ambition. For years, the Global South has been the driving force behind the most ambitious proposals, but the consensus paralysis has prevented us from delivering the treaty the world urgently needs,” states Eskedar Awgichew Ergete of Eco-Justice Ethiopia.
INC-5.2 left ambitious countries lost in process: surprising changes in schedule, blatant lack of transparency, overnight meetings starting as late as 2 am, and a final plenary that started with 40 minute notice at 5.30 am—less than four hours after the Chair’s final draft was released and more than 14 hours after its scheduled time.
“The content is already difficult to agree on, but the broken process makes it worse. Two and a half years in, the rules of procedure are still not agreed upon, and the voting mechanism is still in brackets. Another round of negotiation is welcome, but it won’t help if we don’t fix the process,” said Salisa Traipipitsiriwat of Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) Thailand.
The momentum that civil society and Indigenous Peoples built over the course of the plastics treaty process is undeniable. Not too long ago plastic pollution was seen as a largely waste management problem. Now, the science is clearer than ever on what it will take to solve this crisis, public awareness and alarm is at an all-time high, and over 100 countries have declared their support for plastic production cuts–all because of a strong, global movement to stop plastic pollution from extraction to final disposal.
Now more than ever, the conditions are set for deep transformative change, with or without a plastics treaty. Strong relationships forged between Member States and environmental justice groups will provide countries with the expertise to follow through on their commitments. Business models will be mandated to shift and align with reuse systems.The science is clear, the health impacts are indisputable, the path forward well-defined—and denial is no longer an option.
Thais Carvajal, Alianza Basura Cero Ecuador, “There was no conclusion for the treaty, but we are not backing down: the process and its challenges have made us stronger. We have changed the narrative and will keep fighting plastic pollution.”
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.
