🌍📣 #BreakFreeFromPlastic POPLite Daily: Saturday, August 9 2025

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Subject: 🌍📣 #BreakFreeFromPlastic POPLite Daily: Saturday, August 9 2025

Daily Summary of the Plastics Treaty Negotiations

Geneva, Switzerland | August 9, 2025

TRANSLATIONS

We observed the following high ✅ points:

✅ To commemorate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the International Indigenous Peoples Forum (IIPFP) invited delegates to an event calling for efforts to ensure Indigenous Peoples' rights are respected and centered in the global treaty-making processes.

✅ More than 200 observers demonstrated collective power right at the start of plenary, by displaying signs in multiple languages as country delegates were walking in, demanding governments to "fix the process, keep your promise and finalize a meaningful treaty to end plastic pollution”.

✅ During today’s plenary, delegations such as Chile, Colombia, Grenada, Kenya, Malaysia, Norway, Palau, Peru, Tuvalu and the European Union expressed concern about the slow pace of the negotiations. Other countries, such as Ethiopia, Malaysia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom stated that in order to move forward more effectively, some changes need to be made to the dynamics of the negotiations.

✅ Panama had a powerful intervention reminding countries that without concrete production reduction measures, the treaty “will be built on sand”. The moment provoked an extended round of applause from other delegations.

✅ Uruguay, in particular, said that consensus cannot be used “as a justification for us not to achieve our objectives”.

✅ During the plenary, Fiji gave us a name drop. While referring to the lack of agreement in the texts—which is usually evident when adding words and sentences between brackets—the Fiji delegate said: “to break free from plastic, we must break free from brackets. Go faster”.

✅ Later inside the negotiation rooms, when discussing the treaty preamble, ambitious countries recognized that current levels of plastic production are unsustainable.

✅ In other discussions, ambitious countries highlighted the importance of waste trade measures, remarking that addressing the illegal trade of plastic waste is critical for developing countries, as they help address environmental violations and create protections against serious risks to human and environmental health.

We observed the following low ❌ points:

❌ The second plenary lacked observer participation and left it clear that there has been little progress inside the negotiation rooms. Even the Chair recognized that progress towards finalizing a treaty text has been slow.

❌ During the plenary session, we heard calls from countries such as Russia, Kuwait, and Kazakhstan to prioritize consensus as a decision-making mechanism, which could undermine the ambition and strength of the treaty.

❌ A new assembled text was dropped early in the day. The Global Strategic Communications Council counted 1488 sets of brackets (aka non-agreed text). However, countries are still using the Chair’s text from December 2024 as the main basis of negotiations.

❌ It was made clear that more time is needed to work on Article 6, which addresses plastic production. No agreement has yet been made on this article, with some low-ambition countries calling for the article to be removed entirely.

❌ Despite calls to speed up the negotiation process in plenary, low-ambition countries continue to try to limit the treaty’s scope to exclude plastic production. Attempts have been made to introduce new paragraphs focused solely on waste management and plastic production has been described as “not inherently polluting”.

❌ During plenary, some of these same countries framed themselves as ‘under scrutiny’, despite being some of the top plastic producing countries who have shown tactics to dilute urgency and delay decisions throughout this process.

❌ During negotiations on health measures, some low-ambition countries sought to remove references to human health, arguing it falls outside the treaty’s mandate and calling for its entire removal. They resisted recognizing plastic as a serious health threat, proposing instead to refer to it as a “potential impact” on human health, despite growing scientific evidence.

Photo credit: Trixie Guerrero, BFFP, 2025.

Fix the process, keep your promise, end plastic pollution

On Saturday morning, as delegates arrived for the second plenary session, observers made a clear call to governments: “fix the process, keep your promise and finalise a meaningful treaty to end plastic pollution”. The powerful and somber mobilization signaled strong pressure by civil society and allies, urging delegates to unlock negotiations and uphold ambitious commitments. Observers stood at the entrance holding signs with the message “fix the process” in multiple languages, making their call impossible to ignore.

Photo credit: Trixie Guerrero, BFFP, 2025

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

The International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Plastics (IIPFP) invited delegates and members of the media to an event with the Chair of the INC to commemorate International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, where representatives of Indigenous Peoples from around the world reinforced the painful history of their exclusion from these international policymaking processes. Heni Unwin—member of Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, Rongomaiwahine—noted that her ancestors were literally turned away at the door of this building a century ago when it was the League of Nations. While Indigenous Peoples are now inside the Plastics Treaty negotiations, they are here only as observers—the same status as non-governmental organizations and industry representatives—rather than receiving due recognition as the leaders of nations. Indigenous Peoples are distinctive rights holders, and their leadership must be respected and centered in the global treaty-making processes.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Plastics Treaty negotiations!

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Subject: 🌍📣 #BreakFreeFromPlastic POPLite Daily: Saturday, August 9 2025