IPEN Statement on the Chair’s Text

Today, the INC Chair released a draft Chair’s text for the Plastics Treaty negotiations going forward.

Unfortunately, while the Chair’s text acknowledges the increasing health harms caused by plastics, it falls far short of what the world needs to resolve the plastics crisis and safeguard human health, rights, and the healthy environments we all need to thrive. Over 80 countries have agreed to a proposal from Switzerland and Mexico that calls for including controls on toxic chemicals in plastic products in the Treaty, yet the Chair’s text fails to address chemical threats from plastics. In short, the text is not an acceptable basis for negotiation because it is weak, unbalanced, non-binding, and does not address the full life cycle of harm caused by plastics and plastic chemicals.

Alarmingly, the emphasis in the Chair’s text on false notions of “circularity” without international, legally binding measures to regulate chemicals of concern would exacerbate the plastic crisis by increasing uncontrolled exposures throughout the life cycle, in particular leaving vulnerable populations unprotected.

The Chair’s text, if adopted, would give us a virtually meaningless waste management treaty that will do nothing to resolve the root causes of the plastics crisis: overproduction and threats from hazardous plastic chemicals, The INC should outrightly reject it and stand for a meaningful treaty that fulfills the mandate of the UNEA resolution, to protect human health and the environment. If consensus cannot be achieved, majority voting should be adopted.