News
Big Oil’s ‘chokehold on Global Plastic Treaty talks’
Fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists ‘overrun Plastics Treaty negotiations’, threatening integrity.
7 August 2025
Main image: ‘Plastics Treaty Now’ banner at INC5.2 in Geneva, © Jack Taylor Gotch / Greenpeace
Following 10 days of negotiations, Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) talks to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, adjourned early today (15 August) without consensus on a text of the instrument.
After two years of Global Plastics Treaty talks, ministers in Geneva faced a historic choice during the final hours of what was supposed to be the last round of negotiations: deliver a treaty that truly tackles plastic pollution, or give in to the petrochemical industry’s lobbying.
The Committee agreed to resume negotiations at a future date to be announced.
The meeting adjourned with a clearly expressed desire by Member States to continue the process, recognising the significant difference of views between states.
‘The inability to reach an agreement in Geneva must be a wake-up call for the world: ending plastic pollution means confronting fossil fuel interests head-on. The vast majority of governments want a strong agreement, yet a handful of bad actors were allowed to use the process to drive such ambition into the ground. We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. The time for hesitation is over.
‘The plastics crisis is accelerating, and the petrochemical industry is determined to bury us for short-term profits. Now is not the time to blink. Now is the time for courage, resolve and perseverance. The call from all of civil society is clear: we need a strong, legally binding treaty that cuts plastic production, protects human health, provides robust and equitable financing, and ends the plastic pollution from extraction to disposal. And world leaders must listen. The future of our health and planet depends on it.’GRAHAM FORBES
Greenpeace Head of Delegation to the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations and Global Plastics Campaign Lead for Greenpeace USA
This resumed fifth session (INC-5.2) saw more than 2,600 participants gather at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, including over 1,400 Member delegates from 183 countries, and close to 1,000 Observers representing over 400 organisations.
Some 70 Ministers and Vice Ministers, as well as 30 other high-level representatives, also held informal roundtables on the margins of the session.
Campaigners warned that Big Oil had a ‘chokehold’ on the talks, as at least 234 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists registered to participate in the fifth and final scheduled session of the
negotiations.
‘The plastic industry, oil giants and their political allies have thrown every trick in the book at derailing the Treaty, using their power and influence to obstruct and undermine the negotiations. Consensus-building was thwarted by vested interests intent on sustaining and expanding a polluting industry that is choking life on our planet. But the road doesn’t end here.
‘The political momentum amongst high-ambition countries must now be channelled into a new process that delivers real progress on reducing plastic production, which is fundamental to addressing the root cause of the plastics crisis.’
RUDY SCHULKIND
Greenpeace UK’s political campaigner
The goal of INC-5.2 was to agree on the instrument’s text and highlight unresolved issues requiring further preparatory work ahead of a diplomatic conference.
The session followed a structured approach—starting with an opening plenary, transitioning into four contact groups tackling key areas like plastic design, chemicals of concern, production caps, finance, and compliance, followed by a stocktake plenary, informal consultations, and ending with a closing plenary on 15 August.
A Chair’s Text from INC-5.1 in Busan served as the starting point for negotiations at INC-5.2, with the Chair releasing a Draft Text Proposal and a Revised Text Proposal over the course of the session. Despite intensive engagement, Members of the Committee were unable to reach consensus on the proposed texts.
‘The failure to reach agreement on the UN Global Plastics Treaty represents a devastating capitulation to Big Oil’s interests. After three years of unprecedented collaboration a minority of governments have scuppered the opportunity for binding health and production commitments that were fundamental to the Treaty’s effectiveness. What makes this particularly grotesque is that industry leaders themselves now recognise that the ubiquity of plastic will soon become economically unviable, yet global consensus and an ambitious UN Chair proved impossible when the disruptive few were driven by a pack of fossil fuel lobbyists ready to reap the rewards of failure.
‘The high ambition coalition and civil society built extraordinary solidarity over these negotiations – a unity that transcended traditional boundaries. The fact that this could not overcome a process so fundamentally compromised by the narrow interests of the tiny fraction reaping massive financial rewards reveals the urgent need to reform how we make planetary decisions. We cannot allow the few to continue hijacking the health and wellbeing of the many. I hope to see the majority of nations backing an ambitious Treaty take forward their work and deliver change in the future.’
SIAN SUTHERLAND
Co-founder, A Plastic Planet, Plastic Health Council
This INC process kicked off in March 2022, at the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), when a historic resolution was adopted to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
The session also involved the active participation of civil society – including Indigenous peoples, waste pickers, artists, young people and scientists – who raised their voices through protests, art installations, press briefings and events at and around the Palais.
‘This has been a hard-fought 10 days against the backdrop of geopolitical complexities, economic challenges, and multilateral strains. However, one thing remains clear: despite these complexities, all countries clearly want to remain at the table.
‘While we did not land the treaty text we hoped for, we at UNEP will continue the work against plastic pollution – pollution that is in our groundwater, in our soil, in our rivers, in our oceans and yes, in our bodies.’INGER ANDERSEN
Executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
The Geneva session follows INC 5.1, which took place in November/December 2024 in Busan, Republic of Korea. That meeting was preceded by four sessions: INC-1 in Punta del Este in November 2022, INC-2, held in Paris in June 2023, INC-3 in Nairobi in November 2023, and INC-4, which took place in Ottawa in April 2024.
‘Failing to reach the goal we set for ourselves may bring sadness, even frustration. Yet it should not lead to discouragement. On the contrary, it should spur us to regain our energy, renew our commitments, and unite our aspirations.
‘It has not happened yet in Geneva, but I have no doubt that the day will come when the international community will unite its will and join hands to protect our environment and safeguard the health of our people.’
LUIS VAYAS VALDIVIESO
INC chair ambassador
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