Plastics treaty: governments agreed a mandate, not the text

Governments have agreed to negotiate a plastics treaty. They have not agreed the treaty. That is the status on the UN Environment Programme’s page for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution, last updated on 9 September 2026.

What was agreed is a mandate. In March 2022, at the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly, governments adopted resolution 5/14, “End plastic pollution: towards an international legally binding instrument.” The resolution text is dated 7 March 2022. It asked UNEP’s executive director to convene a committee to develop an instrument based on a comprehensive approach to the full life cycle of plastic, including production, design and disposal, and including the marine environment.

Where the talks stand

The committee began work in the second half of 2022. It has met in Punta del Este (November–December 2022), Paris (May–June 2023), Nairobi (November 2023) and Ottawa (April 2024). The fifth session has been held in parts: Busan in November–December 2024, Geneva in August 2025, and a third part on 7 February 2026 at the Geneva International Conference Centre.

That February meeting did not negotiate substance. After the former chair resigned, the bureau, meeting on 30 October 2025, agreed that a one-day resumed session should be held on 7 February 2026 for organisational and administrative purposes, including the election of officers and of a chair. The page states that no substantive negotiations took place at that session. Drafts that exist, and are listed for readers, include a zero draft of 4 September 2023, a revised draft of 28 December 2023, a compilation of 9 July 2024 and a chair’s text of 1 December 2024. They are working papers, not an agreed instrument.