idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Plastic pollution is causing severe problems worldwide. However, negotiations at the United Nations in Geneva last August did not result in the expected global plastics treaty. On 7 February 2026, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution will reconvene in Geneva to elect a new chairperson. In order to secure an agreement, the new chairperson must urgently reform INC procedures, argue Paul Einhäupl, Linda Del Savio (Research Institute for Sustainability), Melanie Bergmann (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research) and Annika Jahnke (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research) in a recent Nature Comment.
Their analysis reveals significant structural issues that are driving disagreement and hindering progress in negotiations for a legally binding global treaty to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. The authors express concern that the current negotiation process lacks prioritization of issues, sequential debate and decision-making and clear procedural rules, jeopardizing efforts to address the escalating plastics crisis.
The analysis highlights how the INC's broad mandate – addressing the “full life cycle of plastic” – has led to fragmented debates and delayed progress. Differing interpretations of key issues, such as whether the treaty should cover plastic production, chemicals and products of concern and health aspects, contribute to ongoing debates.
Lead author Paul Einhäupl (RIFS): “Addressing the full life cycle of plastics makes negotiations for a global plastics treaty particularly difficult, highlighting the deep interconnectedness of contemporary environmental and societal issues. However, it also presents a rare opportunity to address them more coherently and effectively at the multilateral level”.
Linda Del Savio (RIFS): “A global response to addressing marine plastic pollution requires that the full life cycle of plastics is considered. Such an approach includes the production, transport, and use of plastics, in addition to sound waste management and recycling.
Melanie Bergmann (AWI): “Separating negotiations on key issues such as capping plastic production and financing waste management makes it easy to pit traditional donor and recipient countries against each other. But the two issues are interlinked: The more plastics produced, the more infrastructure is needed. This has been used to increase division rather than bring the parties' positions closer together towards an agreement.”
Annika Jahnke (UFZ): “Plastics accumulate globally in a poorly reversible way, releasing microplastics and chemicals over time. Most will persist for many years, contributing to the three planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Consistent with the precautionary principle, it is key to regulate plastics holistically, largely cutting human exposure during use and emissions to the environment.”
The authors propose three key changes to revive the negotiations:
• Prioritization and sequencing: Decide on the most important issues and set priorities through heads of delegation meetings to facilitate the decision-making process along goals and milestones rather than a set timeline.
• Procedural clarity: Implement clear procedural rules to avoid diversion, including guidelines for drafting, documenting agreements from informal sessions, and resolving disagreement.
• Majority fallback voting: Strengthen options to achieve consensus by introducing a mechanism for majority rule voting in specific circumstances, such as when broad support for a policy emerges but a minority blocks progress.
The authors warn that failure to address the flaws of the current procedures could undermine international cooperation on plastic pollution and multilateralism in general and weaken efforts to tackle interconnected planetary crises, including climate change and biodiversity loss.
Publication:
Einhäupl, Paul; Del Savio, Linda; Bergmann, Melanie; Jahnke, Annika (2026); The global plastics treaty can be saved — here’s how to break the deadlock; Nature, Vol 650, doi: 10.1038/d41586-026-00314-4; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00314-4
Paul Einhäupl
paul.einhaeupl@rifs-potsdam.de
+49 331 6264-22431
Einhäupl, Paul; Del Savio, Linda; Bergmann, Melanie; Jahnke, Annika (2026); The global plastics treaty can be saved — here’s how to break the deadlock; Nature, Vol 650, doi: 10.1038/d41586-026-00314-4; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00314-4
https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/news/global-plastics-treaty-negotiations-success-...
The authors of the Nature Comment: Paul Einhäupl (from left to right), Melanie Bergmann (Alfred Wege ...
Source: Paul Einhäupl
Copyright: © RIFS@GFZ/ P. Einhäupl
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Environment / ecology, Oceanology / climate, Politics, Social studies
transregional, national
Miscellaneous scientific news/publications, Research projects
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
