Plastic treaty negotiations: IPEN wants health concerns to take centre stage

According to EnviroNews Nigeria, midway through the Plastics Treaty negotiations scheduled to end on Thursday August 14, 2025, the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of NGOs dedicated to the common aim of eliminating pollutants, has said that concerns for the threats to human health from toxic plastic chemicals are widely shared by delegates as momentum grows for a Treaty with global controls on harmful chemicals.

While many high ambitious countries expressed frustration at the lack of progress, African region and its negotiators remain resolute and strong together on their demands. “So far, the INC negotiation process is broken, we are currently in damage-control mode particularly the failure for a vote against consensus, which has continued to place plastic treaty process into uncertainty towards an ambitious landing zone and a strong Treaty,” said Dr Leslie Adogame, Executive Director of  IPEN member SRADeV Nigeria.

IPEN and SRADeV Nigeria (IPEN participating organisation) have called for procedural changes that were adopted by previous multilateral environmental agreements to allow voting when consensus cannot be attained.

“It is worrisome that at this stage of the negotiation, members states are still stuck with over bloated text full of brackets, there remains more divergent views than anticipated convergence text at the final negotiations of the Treaty, it is time to break the procedural deadlock,” said Dr Adogame.

read the full story in EnviroNews Nigeria.