Correspondence

Plastic pollution treaty: business roundtable statement

Updated 25 November 2024

1. We, a group of leading businesses and financial institutions with involvement and investments in the plastic value chain, in advance of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, welcome the goal to end plastic pollution by 2040 to protect the environment and human health.

2. We call on members of the Committee to agree to an ambitious treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics, including primary plastic polymers, products made of or containing plastics and associated chemicals, and plastic pollution in all its dimensions, in line with UNEA resolution 5/14, by the end of 2024.

3. While we recognise the voluntary action already taken by business, including through innovation and collaboration with governments and the civil society, and we restate our commitment to continuing these efforts, we emphasise the importance of agreeing global legally-binding rules to facilitate the transition towards a circular economy for plastics and to end plastic pollution.

4. Therefore, we call for the development of global criteria and global listings, underpinned by science-based objectives and measures, for problematic and avoidable plastic products, and globally harmonised product design requirements to provide businesses with guidance, clarity and certainty of future direction, including sector-specific approaches and guidelines. This should include measures to address chemicals of concern to ensure safety and circularity of plastic products.

5. We recognise that the evidence shows that achieving sustainable levels of production and consumption of primary plastic polymers will be necessary to end plastic pollution. Therefore, we call on governments to continue discussions on potential elements, actions and measures which will be necessary to facilitate the transition towards a circular economy.

6. We urge members of the committee to set a clear mandate in the agreement for countries to create regulatory frameworks and mechanisms at the national level to ensure dedicated, ongoing and sufficient funding for the collection, reuse and recycling of plastic products, recognising well-designed, effective and globally harmonised Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems for plastic packaging as a key instrument to mobilise funding and contribute to ending plastic pollution.

7. We acknowledge the critical role of the private sector, alongside the public sector, in addressing the root causes of plastic pollution. As businesses and financial institutions, we stand ready to mobilise significant investments, and engage with the companies we invest in, towards achieving the objectives of the legally binding instrument, including towards innovation and infrastructure. To that end, we urge members of the committee to create the necessary frameworks to support the private sector in redirecting financial flows to align with those objectives and to help de-risk and accelerate the necessary transformative investments our companies are making across the full plastic value chain.

8. To unlock the necessary resources from all sources, the private sector requires clear rules and a level playing field. We call on Parties to set clear global standards and harmonised regulation, which would create the enabling conditions for investments for a system transformation to end plastic pollution.

9. We also recognise the role of transparency to improve understanding of the extent to which actions to address plastic pollution are being funded by both public and private sectors across the lifecycle of plastics. We call for the treaty to establish a harmonised framework that supports data collection, builds on existing best practices, is efficient and supports business in advancing the treaty’s objectives.

10. We call for the treaty to include mechanisms to assess progress and strengthen over time to ensure it meets its objective.

11. We commit to supporting the implementation of the treaty’s objectives, once agreed, to end plastic pollution and protect human health and the environment.

This statement does not constitute legally binding commitments, nor should it be interpreted as itself dictating or altering the strategies of individual signatories, whose own actions, strategies and policies, as designed and guided by their own business activities and country context, are subject to change and dependent on a variety of factors and variables including actions by other private and public actors, legislations, available methodologies on pathways, as well as accessing client information. Signatories volunteer to sign this statement individually and independently, and signing should not be interpreted as any form of collective action.