The third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-3), is scheduled to take place from 13 to 19 November 2023 at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

In INC-3 Briefing 7 of 10, the Key Messages are:

• As part of the triple planetary crisis, pollution is one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, on land, in the air, in water and in the marine environment. At the same time, the human right to a healthy environment has been recognised by the UN and associated bodies.
• Additionally, science increasingly has supported the many connections between the impacts of plastic pollution and damage to environmental and human health. While many multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) address aspects of pollution, especially plastic pollution, none directly govern the full lifecycle of plastic production and pollution, including the many related areas such as trade law and human rights law.
• In 2022, the UNEA adopted Resolution 5/14, opening the process of negotiating an International Legally Binding Instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (ILBI).2 The Resolution establishes parameters for the process of negotiating the ILBI and functions against the backdrop of international law as well as the established process for negotiating, drafting and creating benchmarks for the treaty creation in existing MEA practice.
• There are many steps in the process of advancing from opening negotiations to concluding a final treaty and, for this reason, the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law has issued the following brief outline for the legal process of treaty negotiations.
• This outline is framed within the context of the negotiations for an ILBI although this is meant to serve as an illustration of the general international law norms and practices. Thus, it is widely tailored to explain the common practices of treaty negotiation practice, using standardised terminology although this terminology may differ in practice across the various treaty negotiating systems.

A compilation of 10 Briefings for negotiators is available here. These are:

Briefing 1: Key Elements for Plastic Pollution Treaty 
Briefing 2: Glossary of Key Terms 
Briefing 3: Structure of Plastic Pollution Treaty (ILBI) 
Briefing 4: Just Transition and the International Legally Binding Instrument 
Briefing 5: Regime Convergence and the International Legally Binding Instrument 
Briefing 6: Circular Economy and Plastic Life-Cycle Issues 
Briefing 7: Legal Process of Treaty Negotiations 
Briefing 8: Connections between IUCN’s Plastic Pollution Elimination Timeline and the SDGs 
Briefing 9: Connections between IUCN’s Plastic Pollution Elimination Timeline and the GBF
Briefing 10: Free Trade Agreement Convergence and the Plastic Pollution Treaty