"Business Needs Global Rules": Fourth round of negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty

The fourth round of negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty took place in Ottawa, Canada, from 21 to 30 April. Stefan Grafenhorst, Vice President Sustainability Greiner AG, was there to find out more about the negotiations.

"Business Needs Global Rules" could be read on countless billboards and locations in the Canadian capital Ottawa last week. The aim of the campaign? To win over government representatives from over 180 countries in favor of a global agreement against plastic waste. They travelled to the Canadian capital to take a step closer to this goal. The round of negotiations in Ottawa for a Global Plastics Treaty was only an interim step. At the UN Environment Assembly in 2022, the world's countries agreed to draw up a legally binding agreement to combat global plastic pollution by the end of 2024. Three rounds of negotiations had taken place by Canada. The results were not very concrete by then. The fourth round of negotiations by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) on a global UN plastics agreement has now followed. The aim of the negotiations is to have an internationally legally binding instrument to combat plastic pollution at the fifth session of the INC in Korea in November. 

Results of the fourth round of negotiations

The negotiations in Ottawa have shown that the negotiating states are still far apart and that this timetable is ambitious. One result in Ottawa is therefore that more rounds of negotiations are needed. There are to be further meetings in the coming months. With these additional rounds, the many different proposals could be brought together in a joint treaty text. In terms of content, there was definitely not the hoped-for breakthrough in Canada. The main question that remained unresolved in Ottawa was which areas the global agreement should regulate. Some countries - especially oil-producing states - want to limit the scope of the agreement to the so-called downstream sector. In concrete terms, this means that the framework should regulate products at the end of their life and should not include any restrictions on the production of plastics. Other countries, on the other hand, see the entire life cycle of plastics as the subject of the discussions. It also remained controversial how or to what extent chemicals added to plastic products should be taken into account in the agreement. 

‘High-Ambition Coalition’ of EU countries

The 60-nation High Ambition Coalition, which includes EU countries, island states and Japan, wants precisely this: a comprehensive scope of application for the agreement. In their view, it should regulate the production of plastics as well as a framework for producer responsibility for plastics and the financing of the necessary infrastructure for waste disposal. It remains to be seen which position will prevail in the coming months.  

Numerous companies in favor of a global treaty

A large part of the industry had already positioned itself in favor of the negotiations. More than 200 companies, including large corporations such as Unilever, PepsiCo, Walmart and ourselves at Greiner, have joined forces to form the Business Coalition for a Plastics Treaty. The companies are campaigning for a strong global agreement that focuses on the entire life cycle of plastics. The business coalition is particularly focused on reducing the production and use of plastics in products that are found particularly frequently in the environment after they have been used by humans.