Negotiators meet in Geneva for the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5.2). The session will take place from 5 to 14 August at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, providing a vital opportunity for the international community to craft a treaty that tackles plastic pollution.

Since the adoption of UNEA resolution 5/14 in March 2022, TESS has supported the work of the INC at each negotiating session, endeavouring to provide analysis, data and opportunities for informal dialogue among the diversity of governments and stakeholders vital to concluding an ambitious, effective, and fair treaty that strengthens the international cooperation and collective action needed to tackle the world’s plastic pollution crisis.

At INC-5.2, TESS will be focused on efforts to build convergence on several of the most critical but challenging issues for negotiation. As in past INC sessions, TESS will concentrate on aspects of the negotiation agenda related to the operationalization of the protection of human health and the environment; problematic plastic products and chemicals of concern in products; product design; sustainable production and consumption of plastics, focusing in particular on primary plastic polymers; and financing. We will also work to foster shared understandings and cooperation on the trade-related aspects of the treaty.

Alongside, TESS will continue to support the vital work of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution as part of its Secretariat function.

Key to our work at INC 5.2 will be to support the growing range of 100+ INC members, and a diversity of stakeholders and experts, that have committed through various statements and initiatives to an ambitious and effective treaty and their work to widen engagement across the INC membership in pursuit of convergence on essential elements of a treaty that is fit for purpose.

To contact TESS at INC-5.2, we encourage you to email Carolyn Deere Birkbeck and Olivia Carolina Bonner. For the HAC, please contact Erlend Haugen, Coordinator of the HAC Secretariat, or Nils Simon, leading the TESS team for the HAC on the ground.

We hope to see many of you at INC-5.2! Following are some of the places you will be able to find us and a selection of related TESS publications and activities.

Launch Event: Announcing The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics

4 August 2025 – 07:30-08:45 – Domaine de la Pastorale, Geneva & Online

This event, hosted by the new Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics—an independent, health-focused global monitoring system on plastics—and supported by TESS, will bring together a panel of experts as well as INC members to review evidence on the adverse impacts of plastic pollution on human health, explore opportunities to address these impacts and ensure the protection of human health in the future treaty, and highlight the contribution that the new Lancet Countdown on Plastics and Health can make as an independent data source to inform decision-making. Register here.

INC-5.2 Pre-event: Trade at the Core of the Treaty – Data, Investment, Services and Consumer Information

4 August 2025 – 15:30-17:00 – Palais des Nations, H-Building, Room H-207-208-209 & Online

As negotiations for a global plastics treaty advance, there is growing interest in how cooperation on trade and trade policies can be harnessed to address plastic pollution. This session, hosted by UNCTAD and facilitated by TESS, will explore how trade-related policies, data, investment, services, and consumer information can support a shift towards a more circular and less polluting plastics economy. The session is part of a series of INC-5.2 pre-events held by UNCTAD on 4 August. Register here. It also follows on from an UNCTAD INC-5 pre-event held in Busan in November 2024, where we collaborated on a session on the trade implications of a new global plastics treaty.

We also look forward to joining and supporting events hosted by a range of stakeholders at INC-5.2. Please contact us for information on the places where you will be able to find us throughout the INC session.

Here we present a selection of some of our publications and activities aimed at supporting global efforts to end plastic pollution. For a wider view of our public activities related to the INC process, visit our TESS initiative on the plastics treaty negotiations

Considerations for Ensuring Protection of Human Health From Plastic Pollution in the Future Treaty

August 2025

This informal briefing note, prepared by TESS ahead of the resumed fifth session of plastics treaty negotiations, aims to support INC members’ discussions on how to reflect elements essential to achieving the protection of human health from plastic pollution in the future treaty.

Trade-Related Considerations in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Develop an International Legally Binding Instrument on Plastic Pollution, Including in the Marine Environment

August 2025

This informal briefing note, prepared by TESS ahead of the resumed fifth session of plastics treaty negotiations, provides a synopsis of how trade-related issues and considerations are arising in the INC discussions, accompanied by annexes that provide illustrative examples of approaches in existing multilateral environmental agreements.

Protecting People and Planet: Supporting Implementation of the Future Plastics Treaty

May 2025

TESS co-hosted a side event at the World Health Assembly aimed to answer questions about human health as a central issue for the plastics treaty and how health sector stakeholders can support implementation of the treaty. View the video interview of TESS Executive Director Carolyn Deere Birkbeck and TESS Senior Policy Advisor Lizzie Fuller highlighting the importance of the protection of human health as a core issue for the negotiations. The full event video is also available.

The Work of the WTO Dialogue on Plastic Pollution: Insights and Reflections for the INC Process

November 2024

Ahead of INC-5, this webinar—hosted by Australia with support of the co-coordinators of the WTO Dialogue on Plastic Pollution (DPP) and TESS—shared insights from the work of the DPP, including on the global plastics trade landscape, lessons about compatibility of multilateral environment agreements and WTO rules, and national experiences on trade and plastic pollution that can inform and support the work of the INC. The full event video is available.

Geneva Beat Plastic Pollution Dialogues

2024 – 2025

Since the launch of the INC process, TESS has partnered with the Geneva Environment Network’s Beat Plastic Pollution Dialogues. Our most recent collaboration includes co-convening and speaking at the World Environment Day Celebration Dialogue on multilateral Geneva collectively acting to beat plastic pollution (view agenda and event video). In October 2024, we spoke at an event on the Road to Busan – Plastic Treaty Talks (view agenda and event video), and earlier in May we co-hosted with the Geneva Environment Network and the Geneva Health Platform a roundtable at the World Health Assembly on the plastics crisis as a health crisis (view agenda and event video).

Standards and Related Initiatives in International Cooperation to End Plastic Pollution: Mapping and State of Play

September 2023

The relevance of standards and standard-setting processes has arisen as a crosscutting issue in the plastic treaty negotiations. This TESS policy paper is intended to inform discussion on the role that international cooperation on standards can play in supporting global efforts to end plastic pollution.

Options for Trade-Related Cooperation on Problematic and Avoidable Plastics: Building on Existing Experiences with Single-Use Plastics

November 2023

Recognizing the need for immediate steps by countries to reduce or eliminate problematic, harmful, and avoidable plastics, this TESS policy brief aims to inform discussion on options for trade-related cooperation and action on single-use plastics that could be pursued through international processes, including through the plastics treaty negotiations and the WTO Dialogue on Plastic Pollution.

Trends in Trade Flows Across the Life Cycle of Plastics: Preliminary Review

May 2023

In a range of international processes related to tackling plastic pollution, governments have noted the importance of improving the transparency of trade flows across the life cycle of plastics and of the material composition of products traded internationally. To inform these discussions, this TESS briefing note provides a groundbreaking review of trends in trade flows across the full life cycle of plastics, starting from trade in feedstocks, precursors, and chemical additives commonly used in plastics through to a range of intermediary and final plastic products, and plastic wastes.

Plastic Pollution and Trade Across the Life Cycle of Plastics: Options for Amending the Harmonized System to Improve Transparency

May 2022

A critical missing piece for effective, evidence-based policymaking to tackle plastic pollution is reliable and disaggregated data on cross-border trade flows across the life cycle of plastics. This TESS policy brief identifies gaps and challenges in the World Custom Organization’s Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) that are relevant to efforts to tackle plastic pollution. It then puts forward options for amending the HS that would facilitate monitoring and regulating trade flows across the life cycle of plastics.

Official INC website

The website includes the latest updates and official documents as well as information on the work of the INC. On the INC-5.2 website, you can access a live webcast of the Plenary of the official negotiations. The Chair’s Text and official documents are also available.

While the official agenda has not yet been released, the scenario note from the INC Chair provides an overview of the planned structure and focus of INC 5.2.

Geneva Environment Network – Plastics Treaty INC-5.2 "Offsite Buzz"

On this page you can find a compilation of resources and activities—including conferences, receptions, artistic, and cultural demonstrations—taking place in the margins of the plastics treaty negotiations in Geneva.

IISD's Earth Negotiations Bulletin

On this platform you will find summary reports of each day of the INC-5.2 negotiations prepared by ENB, an independent reporting service on United Nations environment and development negotiations.

Dialogue on Plastic Pollution at the WTO

Official page of the World Trade Organization’s Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade—a member-driven initiative exploring how cooperation at the WTO can contribute to efforts to reduce plastics pollution—including official documents and other information.