The Climate Reality Project Philippines joins hundreds of civil society organizations in expressing dismay over the outcome of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee’s second part of the fifth session for a global agreement to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5.2). 

Instead of a robust and legally binding Global Plastics Treaty that addresses the entire life cycle of plastics—from extraction of raw materials to production and design to product use and to disposal—the world is left to wait in the dark as the talks once again failed to reach an agreement. 

As we await the next rounds of talk to resume at a later date, unnecessary single-use plastics and toxic chemicals continue to pollute the environment, adversely impacting people and the planet in the areas of health, biodiversity, economy, and the climate. 

Just like the climate conference of parties in recent years, the plastics treaty negotiations seemed to be dominated by low-ambition oil and gas-producing countries, together with an army of fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumbering delegations from high-ambition countries. We call for more transparency and fairness to fix the flawed negotiations process, providing more access to civil society organizations, scientific community, indigenous peoples, waste workers, and local voices at the negotiating table. 

During the ten-day negotiations, we saw how adamant low-ambition countries were for decision-making by consensus among parties. While consensus is important to a truly binding and effective treaty, we support the push of high-ambition countries and observer groups to consider voting if consensus is not reached for future negotiations, to avoid stalemates in this critical time.

In addition, scientific studies reveal that unlimited production of plastics is fueling the climate crisis and impacting the health of various communities. With this, we reiterate that the treaty must heed the science, address the health impacts, and bind countries to pursue significant plastic production caps, redesign products, ban toxic chemicals, and prioritize zero waste and circular economy approaches such as reuse and refill. 

We hope and expect world governments including the Philippines to no longer turn a blind eye on the plastic crisis with haphazard policies and actions, but to take a holistic approach to the problem with urgent and decisive action, starting with a bold plastics treaty. We strongly believe that passing a global plastics treaty anchored on the principles of science, environmental justice, human rights, and just transition is a huge leap in solving the triple planetary crisis of plastic pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss towards a better reality and sustainable future for humanity.

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