As Ministers and Heads of State gather in the margins of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and New York Climate Week to discuss the future of the plastics treaty, over 160 organizations are calling on Heads of State and Ministers to commit to advancing a plastics treaty that controls and reduces plastic production. The letter, dated September 20, 2024, comes on the eve of the multiple, closed-door, high-level meetings focused on the plastics treaty. 

UNGA comes nine weeks before the fifth and final scheduled session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to advance the plastics treaty (INC-5). While recent G7 Presidential and Ministerial commitments and potential high-level position changes from governments like the United States signal an openness to reducing plastic production, there is concern that negotiators will delete commitments to addressing plastic production through compromises and dealmaking. 

The letter states, “Plastic production is projected to almost triple in the next decades, significantly exacerbating its impacts. With more than 1,400 new fossil fuel-dependent projects to expand production capacity set to be built by 2027, the disproportionate harm and toxic exposure already faced by Indigenous Peoples and frontline and fenceline communities living near these production sites will surely intensify.”

Signatories call on Ministers to deliver supply-side rules to control and reduce production by the end of the negotiations and to include a global production reduction target unequivocally accompanied by clear, mandatory pathways for each country to deliver the necessary reductions. 

Read letter here

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