The 2025 edition of World Environment Day focused on putting an end to plastic pollution. For decades, plastic pollution has seeped into every corner of the world, leaching into the water we drink, into the food we eat, and our bodies. While plastic pollution is a major concern, it is also one of the most fixable of today’s environmental challenges, with some obvious solutions at hand.

This year’s World Environment Day observance comes as countries make progress towards securing a global treaty to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. In November 2024, the Republic of Korea hosted the fifth session of negotiations to develop a plastic pollution treaty, and is this year the official host of World Environment Day. The fifth session of the international negotiation committee will resume in Geneva from 5 to 14 August 2025.

Partners and stakeholders gathered together and showcased how international Geneva creates synergies, drives innovation, and boosts ambition to advance the beat plastic pollution agenda.

Many actors in Geneva are actively working to address the plastic crisis at the global and local levels. As a hub of environmental and health governance, Geneva plays an important role in the multilateral processes to address plastic pollution. Showcasing Geneva expertise through the work on environmental issues, chemical governance, health, human rights, trade and many relevant areas of work, the Forum spotlighted their contribution to global processes to end plastic pollution.

In line with the official World Environment Day 2025 Celebration hosted in South Korea, the Geneva Environment Network organized a dialogue to highlight multilateral Geneva collective efforts to beat plastic pollution, including through the Geneva Beat Plastic Pollution Dialogues.

These dialogues were launched two years before the adoption in 2022 of a historic resolution at the United Nations Environment Assembly, setting up the path to a global treaty to end plastic pollution. They have been making links with ongoing multilateral processes to tackle plastic pollution, in Geneva and beyond and convened by the Geneva Environment Network in collaboration with the governments of Norway and Switzerland, the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions Secretariat, the Center for International Environmental Law, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs (TESS), and the University of Geneva.

The intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop the international legally binding instrument (INC) that was set up following the adoption of the resolution, will be resuming its fifth session in Geneva, from 5 to 14 August 2025.

Multilateral Geneva plays a pivotal role in advancing the global agenda to beat plastic pollution, serving as a hub for multilateral cooperation, policy development, and scientific research. Various ongoing initiatives and processes to be highlighted during the celebration foster engagement among intergovernmental organizations, governments, businesses, scientists, civil society, and individuals to drive coordinated action to end plastic pollution, in support to a successful and ambitious outcome of the INC process.

Arnold KREILHUBER, Director, Europe Office, UN Environment Programme

H.E. Amb. Felix WERTLI, Ambassador for the Environment, Switzerland

H.E. Amb. Sung-yo CHOI, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva

H.E. Amb. Sung-yo CHOI, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva

Kate ROBERTSON, Technical Officer (Legal), Public Health Law and Policies Unit, Department of Health Promotion, World Health Organization

Juliette VOINOV KOHLER, Senior Legal Officer and Chief, Governance, Branch, Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

Michael CAMILLERI, Branch Chief, Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

María Daniela GARCÍA, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the World Trade Organization

Manal AZZI, Global Team Lead on Occupational Safety and Health Policy, International Labour Organization

Sonia PEÑA MORENO, Director, Centre for Policy and Law, International Union for Conservation of Nature

Margherita PUCINO, Global Metrics and Roadmaps Lead, Global Plastic Action Partnership, World Economic Forum

Efraim GOMEZ, Global Director, Global Policy Impact, WWF International

Carolyn DEERE BIRKBECK, Executive Director, Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs (TESS)

Jane MUNCKE, Managing Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Food Packaging Forum

H.E. Amb. Luis VAYAS VALDIVIESO, Chair, INC on Plastic Pollution | Video Message