Realizing the ambition of a new international treaty to end plastic pollution calls for attention to how we can harness international economic cooperation to transform the plastics economy, support a just transition to sustainability, and foster new economic opportunities, especially for developing countries.

Today for Geneva World Environment Day Celebration 2025, TESS Executive Director Carolyn Deere Birkbeck spoke at the Geneva Environment Network high-level dialogue, where she shared thoughts on what obligations will require international cooperation to implement an effective treaty to end plastic pollution and how work across International Geneva and the multilateral system can support this endeavour.

We know that there is no single policy response in isolation that can address the scale and complexity of turning the tide of the global plastics crisis. We also know that this environmental and public health crisis cannot be solved with a single fix, or a patchwork of responses, or by any one nation. No country can solve plastic pollution alone.

Implementing the treaty will require a range of policy measures across the whole life cycle, guided by obligations that support international cooperation in addressing this global challenge.

We now have at our fingertips a range of different models and data sets that all converge on the point that without intervention, plastic production, use, mismanaged waste, and leakage to the environment will all increase, exacerbating environmental and health impacts.

Since the launch of the negotiating process following the adoption of UNEA resolution 5/14 in March 2022, TESS has supported the work of the INC and has been on the ground at each negotiating session, endeavoring to advance an ambitious, effective, and fair treaty that strengthens the international cooperation and collective action needed to tackle the plastics crisis. Throughout, we have also supported the work of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution as part of its Secretariat function.

Our efforts to support the treaty process include organizing events and informal expert working groups, developing information documents in collaboration with technical experts, and convening consultations focused on fostering convergence on several indispensable, but challenging, elements of the negotiations—primary production, plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastics, and financing—as well as the operationalization of the protection of human health from the adverse impacts of plastic pollution as a core objective for the treaty.

We have further supported the work of the INC by promoting cooperation on where and how trade and trade-related policies are relevant to international efforts to tackle plastic pollution, and how cooperation on trade can support the treaty and its implementation. In this regard, we have actively participated in the WTO Dialogue on Plastic Pollution, providing inputs through policy papers looking at critical issues at the intersection of trade, plastic pollution, and sustainable development.

With just two months remaining until we resume negotiations in Geneva for INC 5.2, it is vital to support members to focus on the essential elements for securing a treaty that is ambitious, effective, and fair.

In the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his World Environment Day 2025 message: “We need an ambitious, credible and just agreement this year. One that covers the life-cycle of plastic, through the perspective of circular economies… that responds to the needs of communities… that aligns with broader environmental goals, the sustainable development goals, and beyond… and that is implemented fast and in full."

As we look towards August, let us keep in mind the issue of urgency—the real human health and environmental impacts, and the challenges that the pollution is presenting now, every day, to millions of people.