☝️ The next meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment takes place soon from August 5 to 14, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. 

The upcoming meeting is more commonly known as INC-5.2, and the instrument these 90+ countries are negotiating under the United Nations Environment Programme is often referred to as the “global plastics treaty”. 

❓ What is this future treaty and why is it important?

👉 Society is facing a Triple Planetary Crisis: human-driven climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. The scientific evidence shows that plastics are a contributing factor to all three of them and that the plastics treaty could help mitigate this crisis by addressing pollution throughout the full plastics life cycle, including during feedstock extraction, production, manufacture, use, transportation, and end of life.

🔬 Since the INC started in 2022, discussions have become complex, and there are currently many options on the table. To help negotiators understand and consider the latest independent science, the Food Packaging Forum has participated in the past four INC meetings as a member of the Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty. We will be in Geneva to support the next meeting, too.