"A new Aid to Negotiations document for the Global Plastics Treaty has been released a year after Geneva's collapse, but campaigners warn it dilutes key measures and retreats from the ambition needed to end plastic pollution."
"Twelve months after formal negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty broke down in Geneva, the new Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee has released an Aid to Negotiations document intended to revive the stalled process.
Campaigners say, however, that it does not represent progress, rather that it represents retreat.
The document, released by Chair Julio Cordono following months of informal and closed-door talks, is a non-negotiated reference text designed to support the next stages of the process – further closed meetings in Bangkok from 27 to 30 September 2026, and the resumption of formal negotiations at INC-5.4 in March 2027.
Civil society organisations have not been granted access to the recent talks that preceded the document’s release. In his accompanying note, Cordono confirmed he had not included bridging proposals put forward by countries in meetings attended by the heads of delegations. It has been left unclear how those ideas will be handled going forward.
For the Environmental Investigation Agency, which has followed the negotiations throughout their four-year history, the document is not a step forward from Geneva – it is a repackaging of the same inadequate ambition that caused it to collapse."
