IUCN’s legal training at UNEA-7: building capacity and setting the ground for an ambitious Plastic Treaty

Just like in our daily lives, plastic pollution permeates almost all aspects of international environmental governance frameworks. Many multilateral environmental agreements (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 “Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on chemicals, waste and pollution (ISP-CWP)”, and other global and regional Conventions, address parts of the plastic pollution crisis.  

Historically the UN Environment Assembly has been a forum in which discussions on how to tackle plastic pollution have advanced. In fact, several Resolutions adopted by the UNEA at their past sessions, and some that had been proposed and then adopted at UNEA7 reflect widely held concerns about the impact of pollution on human health and the environment.   

To address those questions, IUCN, under the NORAD funded project, prepared the following legal and policy briefs to support Plastic Experts/delegates attending UNEA7 and for INC negotiators in preparations for upcoming Plastics Treaty Negotiations, which will be translated and published by January 2026:  

1. IUCN and IUCN WCEL Legal Brief on “Gaps and Synergies across existing Treaty Regimes to address Plastic Pollution and the interplay of the INC outcomes and proposals for a Plastics Treaty with those Treaty regimes” 

2. IUCN Legal Brief on a “Source-to-Sea” (S2S) approach to address marine plastic pollution: Policy, legal and institutional outlook  

3. IUCN and IUCN WCEL Policy Brief on “Pollution Related UNEA7 Draft Resolutions as of 26 November 2025”  

4. IUCN policy brief on “Plastic Treaty Negotiations – Financial Mechanisms options”  

5. IUCN and IUCN WCEL legal brief on “Plastic Treaty Negotiations – Rules of Procedure for INC-5.3”  

The main content of those draft briefs has been presented to the NORAD funded Plastics Experts/Delegates attending UNEA7 and discussed during UNEA7, onsite, in presence of IUCN experts, on 10 December in a Legal Briefing and Dialogue. 

The purpose of this training was to reflect on the possibilities and gaps of regulation of parts of the plastic pollution UNEA 5/14 mandate under the current Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), considering also the UNEA7 Resolutions on Strengthening Synergies in the Chemicals and Waste Cluster and agenda, and listen to delegates experiences, needs, and concerns by bringing together delegates from Pacific region with delegates from the West African region and a delegate from the Youth.   

“At the 2025 World Conservation Congress, IUCN Members have adopted a new IUCN resolution on Plastic Pollution (Resolution 8.058). The legal training held at the margins of UNEA7 was an opportunity to bring delegates from the Pacific region with delegates from the West African region, as well as a delegate from the Youth, together to share experiences on how to address plastic pollution amidst complex legal landscapes." - Karine Siegwart, Senior Policy Advisor, IUCN Centre for Policy and Law.

Further, the aim was to discuss how a future Plastic Treaty can ensure that the textual proposals enshrine the growing trend of cooperation and coordination between different MEAs and other international treaty regimes, including those on biodiversity and ecosystems, and how this can be implemented on regional, national and local level, with a particular focus on the Source-to-Sea approach to address marine plastic pollution.  

Participants agreed: Pollution poses a threat and challenge to the effective management and governance of interconnected land, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems.  The governance challenge is that commonly – in a complex international law and treaty landscape –, States regulate these ecosystems and natural resources and related circular economy solutions for the plastic life cycle in silos, often with gaps as well as contradictions and fragmentation. Thus, plastic pollution should be addressed throughout the entire life cycle of the products from which it results, and its management and governance be compliant with the above mentioned MEAs and contribute ultimately to the global climate and biodiversity goals and obligations. 

There was consensus, that despite obligations, targets, monitoring/reporting, implementation and financing under existing MEAs and national legislation regulating parts of the Plastics life cycle, an independent Plastics Treaty is urgently needed.

While exchanging experiences with legislation on “Bans on single-use-plastics-products" and “Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Schemes”, participants emphasized the critical role of science and scientific data and science-based information, education as well as the participation of Rightsholders and Stakeholder along the whole plastic value chain.  A future Plastics treaty should support such concrete, science-based circular economy solutions, that address from production and product design to waste management and disposal obligations, voluntary measures, financing and opportunities to prevent pollution and scale up the development of more sustainable and safer plastic products (or alternatives/substitutes), overcome challenges with different regulatory approaches and support a holistic governance (e.g. as evidenced through the Source-to-Sea Approach to address marine plastic pollution).