The UN Environment Assembly’s decision, in March 2022, to start international negotiations on a plastic pollution treaty marked a watershed moment. Following a successful first session of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC), states and other stakeholders are now committing to paper what the new treaty should contain. As states prepare for the INC’s second session in Paris, France, the key questions are exactly what the new treaty should regulate — and how.
The objective of this research — commissioned by WWF and conducted by Eunomia — is to identify and prioritize plastic product groups with the highest pollution risk, and the control measures that would be most suitable to address them. This research thus aims to provide a deep dive into one core component of the treaty.
This report provides:
- A framework for assessing the urgency, need and feasibility of control measures, and what those control measures could be; and
- An assessment, based on current evidence, of how product groups can be treated within that framework to guide negotiators.
