For a Plastics Treaty that conserves nature

Since 2014, IUCN has been at the forefront of tackling plastic pollution across six global regions and more than 20 countries, mobilizing a portfolio of over USD 100 million. Through this work, IUCN has built a strong evidence base on plastic fluxes from source to sea—using plastic footprint and hotspot assessments, advancing research to improve scientific understanding, and advising governments worldwide on effective legal and policy responses. 

On the ground, IUCN is delivering results through projects such as AFRIPAC, Closing the Caribbean Plastic Tap, the Pacific Plastics Project, and IslandPlas, while also playing an active role in the Plastics Treaty negotiations since their inception. Across headquarters, regional and national offices, our scientific Commissions, including the World Commission on Environmental Law, and through our Membership, IUCN provides science-based legal and policy support, capacity building for negotiators such as the legal training at UNEA7, and practical solutions to help countries meet obligations across multiple international frameworks—including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its Target 7 in particular. 

The work on the ground is complemented by our efforts at the different INC sessions, including proposing options for entry points for biodiversity language within the future Plastics Treaty (A global plastics treaty and biodiversity: converging or conflicting regimes? - resource | IUCN; Reinforcing Commitments to Nature and Communities: Options to include Biodiversity in the future Global Plastics Treaty - resource | IUCN). Thus, IUCN is continuing to support negotiators with policy and legal briefs, such as the newly published:

In the Gaps and Synergies briefing, IUCN and IUCN WCEL highlight the ways in which multiple multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) could be connected to issues relating to plastic pollution as well as the significant gaps in their jurisdiction, which makes a global instrument addressing plastic pollution necessary. Specifically, MEAs such as the Basel Convention, the Rotterdam Convention and the Stockholm Convention, the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as well as the  “Global Framework on Chemicals and the recently established new “Science-Policy Panel on chemicals, waste and pollution (ISP-CWP)”, and other global and regional Conventions, address parts of the plastic pollution crisis but not all aspects of it. Since the August 2025 5^th resumed session of the INC (INC – 5.2), ended without producing a treaty instrument, some have suggested that a way forward could be to expand the regulation of plastic pollution elements under existing international agreements.   

Simultaneously, States have committed to ensure the protection of rivers, coastal and marine ecosystems, recognising their connectivity as a continuum in many global and regional regulatory frameworks, while progressively developing and adopting plans, policies and laws to control, prevent and reduce plastic pollution on a national and local level. The management and governance of land, water, coastal and marine ecosystems is complex and dynamic by nature and requests a holistic approach. Thus, the second briefing elaborates on the governance instruments at national and local levels to address the breath of the complexities of marine plastic pollution by focusing on the Source-to-Sea (S2S) approach.   

As IUCN looks ahead to rolling out the 2026–2029 Programme and gets ready to implement the recently adopted IUCN Resolution 8.058 on “Advancing actions to end plastic pollution to protect human health, biodiversity and the environment” we seek additional support to deepen and scale this work in three interconnected areas: