Final Round of Negotiations on Global Plastic Treaty Begins in South Korea

CCB • November 25, 2024

Busan, South Korea – 25 November 2024 – After the 4^th meeting (INC-4) held in Ottawa, Canada, delegates and observers have gathered again in South Korea for the final round of negotiations on the Global Plastic Treaty (INC-5).

This pivotal session will take place from November 25 to December 1, 2024, aiming at the development of a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including its impact on the marine environment. Also CCB, along with other civil society organizations from across the globe – such as its Member Organization the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation - are actively engaged in these negotiations.

In her opening statement, UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen, remarked:
“Today marks one thousand days since the historic UNEA resolution greenlighting these negotiations. While some multilateral agreements have taken decades to finalize, this represents good progress. However, plastic pollution operates on a different timescale. Some plastics take up to one thousand years to decompose. Even then, they break down into smaller particles that persist, pervade, and pollute.

This pollution harms the natural systems and species we rely on, hampers our ability to adapt to climate change, damages ecosystem resilience, and blocks drainage systems in cities. It very likely also harms human health. Furthermore, the continued growth of plastic production emits greenhouse gases, pushing us closer to climate disaster.”

Eugeniy Lobanov, CCB Hazardous Substances Working Area Leader, emphasizes the critical moment the negotiation process is currently living:
“We are at a crucial juncture, with sharp differences in interests among groups of Member States. It is imperative to craft a Treaty that addresses the full life cycle of plastics, including upstream activities such as production and content regulation. Managing plastic waste alone will never suffice.

Another vital element is the inclusion of health provisions in the treaty. The INC must retain references to protecting human health and the environment, maintaining the objective of safeguarding both through this instrument.”

Campaigners, businesses, and members of the High Ambition Coalition—an alliance comprising EU member states and southern hemisphere nations where much of the world’s waste is dumped or incinerated—support production limits as the most effective way to curb plastic waste and encourage recycling.

The EU’s Role in Tackling Plastic Waste

In the European Union, upcoming regulations aim to shift the responsibility for managing plastic and other packaging waste onto the companies that produce it.

The revised Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, an update to a 1994 EU Regulation, is expected to come into force next year. Under this directive, every EU country will be required to implement Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes to achieve a 5% reduction in waste by 2030 and a 15% reduction by 2040.

Lawmakers have also agreed to make all packaging reusable or recyclable by 2030 and to ban certain single-use packaging items, such as lightweight plastic bags and condiment sachets, by the same deadline.

Progress in Negotiations

Since its inception in 2022, the INC has convened four times (INC-1, INC-2, INC-3, and INC-4), overcoming initial procedural challenges and advancing to text-based negotiations based on a draft compilation of the future treaty.

During INC-5, the Committee is expected to divide into four contact groups to address key issues:

Plastic Products and Production: Including chemicals of concern, product design, and supply chain aspects.
Plastic Waste Management: Covering emissions, releases, existing pollution (including in marine environments), and just transitions.
Finance and International Cooperation: Establishing financial mechanisms, capacity building, technical assistance, technology transfer, and cooperative efforts.
Implementation and Compliance: Addressing national plans, reporting, monitoring progress, evaluating effectiveness, sharing information, and raising awareness through education and research.

-END

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Article written by Eugeniy Lobanov, CCB Hazardous Substances Working Area Leader

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Don't reopen the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Implement it.

By CCB • June 15, 2026

The European Commission's evaluation confirms what environmental NGOs across Europe have long argued: the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)'s challenge is not its design, but its implementation.

Joint NGO recommendations on Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2027

By CCB • June 10, 2026

The poor status and decline of many Baltic Sea fish populations have been thoroughly documented over several decades, indicating that the entire ecosystem is in great distress. So far, policy interventions have not reversed, or even halted, the negative trend concerning many of these populations. The European Commission itself recently recognised in its Common Fishery Policy (CFP) evaluation report that progress on stock rebuilding is lacking and the number of stocks “ threatened by collapse due to impaired recruitment has increased during the reporting period ”. Fish populations that once formed the cornerstone of the Baltic Sea fishery, such as the eastern and western Baltic cod and the western Baltic herring, are now doing so poorly that the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is advising zero catch for these stocks. Yet, even with the targeted fishery being closed for some years now, none of these three stocks are showing sufficient signs of recovery. The condition (such as size and weight-at-age) of many flatfish populations, such as plaice, also raises alarm bells. The salmon spawning migration has fallen short of the target level in the past three years5. As a result, even the healthiest salmon stocks are now unlikely to produce enough smolts corresponding to sustainable levels in the coming years. To address the crisis facing Baltic populations and the broader ecosystem, political will and ambition to improve fisheries management, alongside full implementation of the CFP provisions, are needed. The recent INI report on the Baltic Sea Multi-Annual Plan shows that the European Parliament recognises the importance of ecosystem-based fisheries management as well as the need for consideration of environmental legislation when making decisions on fishing opportunities.6 Fisheries managers must now act swiftly and decisively on the commitment the Commission and Baltic Sea Member States made at last year’s October Agrifish Council to rebuild Baltic Sea stocks. This document presents the joint NGO recommendations regarding Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2027, prioritising long-term ecosystem health and sustainable fisheries management over short-term economic interests. The recommendations are based on the ICES advice, the objectives and requirements of the CFP8 and the Baltic Multiannual Plan (MAP), specifically to apply the precautionary approach and implement an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management, and the objective of achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Last year’s overarching joint Briefing Series on TAC-setting, co-signed by almost 30 organisations across the EU and the UK, including environmental NGOs, recreational fishers, and fishing rights owners, remains valid and provides further context, background and detailed explanations on the cross-cutting issues raised in this document. Read the Joint NGO recommendations on Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2027 here .