BUSAN, Republic of Korea (November 29, 2024) - WWF finds the new draft text proposed by the INC-5 Chair failing to meet basic requirements needed for a strong globally binding treaty that can end plastic pollution, namely global bans.
Commenting on the draft text Erin Simon, Vice President &Head of Plastic Waste and Business, WWF said: Despite the majority support of promising proposals for a strong and binding treaty on plastic pollution, what we have currently in this text is far from what we need. To reduce plastic pollution, we need binding measures on global bans on harmful plastic products and chemicals, global product design rules, aligned financial flows, and mechanisms to strengthen over time. We also need to align efforts to the waste hierarchy - with reduction at the top - in order to make the most of our resources. Without these, we'll lose even more than our chance to end plastic pollution, we'll lose our chance to recapture the economic value embedded in our materials, and the innovation that a strong treaty could have catalyzed.
At this point the progressive majority has a decision to be made - agree to a treaty among the willing even if that means leaving some countries that don't want a strong treaty or concede to countries that will likely never join the treaty anyway, failing the planet in the process."
And, Eirik Lindebjerg, Global Plastics Policy Lead, WWF said: "We are calling on countries to not accept the low level of ambition reflected in this draft as it does not contain any specific upstream measures such as global bans on high risk plastic products and chemicals of concern supported by the majority of countries. Without these measures the treaty will fail to meaningfully address plastic pollution. High ambition countries must ensure that these measures are part of the final treaty text or develop an ambitious treaty among the willing."
