Process without progress

The sixth session of negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution (INC-5.2)

Bibliographic Data

ID22019573
AuthorsEmily Cowan (0000-0002-3550-0449, SINTEF, corresponding author), Rachel Tiller (0000-0002-2505-9194, SINTEF), Kari Fischer (SINTEF), Felix Nütz (0009-0001-2534-8746, University of Vienna), Theodore Tiller (SINTEF), Thomas Maes (0000-0002-1282-8871, Seacroft Hospital)
Year2026
Publication date2026-07-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Environmental Studies and Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2190-6491 • E-ISSN: 2190-6483
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s13412-026-01126-8
OpenAlexW7167550285
LanguageEN
References cited16

The second part of the fifth session of the UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) on plastic pollution was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 5 to 15 August 2025. Despite a sense of urgency, 2,600 participants, including delegations from 183 countries and hundreds of observers, negotiators left Geneva without consensus on a final agreement. Delegates decided to put the negotiations on pause, demonstrating a continued commitment but deep divergences in opinions over core aspects of the agreement, such as scope and ambition, inclusion of additives, production controls, and financing mechanisms. Drawing on our ethnographic participant observation methodology and analysis of official documents, this paper outlines the negotiation dynamics and assesses how the emerging treaty text developed over the negotiation session at INC-5.2, and if no treaty is to come from this process, what alternatives there may be outside the formal negotiation process

Negotiation · Process (computing) · Scope (computer science) · Session (web analytics) · Sustainable development · Treaty · Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals · Genetically Modified Organisms Research · Microplastics and Plastic Pollution

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