Businesses send powerful signal to UN on need for legally binding plastic pollution treaty

• Leading companies and financial institutions call for countries to begin negotiations on a comprehensive, legally binding treaty on plastic pollution.
• This is the first time industry leaders have advocated for such a robust policy, and timing is critical just months before UN member states participate in the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) 5.2 where they have the opportunity to negotiate a treaty.

GLAND, SWITZERLAND, 17 January 2022 – Today more than 70 leading businesses and financial institutions have called for a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution in a pre-UNEA statement, which will be available at plasticpollutiontreaty.org/UNEA as well.

This is the first time industry leaders have advocated for such a robust policy on plastic pollution. The new statement includes explicit recognition of the need to reduce virgin plastic production and use, and comes just months before UNEA 5.2 where member states will have a crucial opportunity to negotiate a treaty.

Today’s statement is an indictment on the severity of our current plastic crisis, which merits immediate and concerted global efforts that tackle the problem at its root and throughout its lifecycle, in line with the vision for a circular economy for plastics. Pressure has been mounting on the international community for a legally binding treaty: More than 2 million people around the world have signed a WWF petition, and more than ¾ of UN member states have also backed those calls.

The companies’ statement is strongly aligned with a resolution to establish a negotiation mandate for a new treaty that has been tabled for the upcoming UNEA by a group of 42 countries, led by Rwanda and Peru. However, there are concerns that other states may support a less ambitious mandate. Discussions around the scope and ambition of the proposed treaty are currently ongoing and will be critical to determining whether the treaty will be able to deliver on the goal of eliminating plastic pollution.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation CEO Andrew Morlet said: "Plastic pollution doesn't stop at borders, it is a global problem that requires businesses and governments to work together on global solutions. Today marks the first time so many leading businesses have come together and called for a legally-binding, robust treaty; one that sets common rules and regulations, establishes a level playing field and creates the conditions needed to deliver coordinated global solutions. This statement sends a powerful signal to policymakers that they now have an unprecedented opportunity to turn the tide on plastic pollution."

WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini said: “We need a transformation in ambition and action in how we make, use and reuse plastic. It is no longer a question of whether we need a treaty on plastic pollution, it’s more about what this treaty must look like in order to tackle today’s still rampant plastic pollution crisis. These companies are asking governments to agree on a legally-binding set of global regulations and standards, including explicit recognition of the need to reduce virgin plastic production and use. Let us now seize the momentum that we are seeing across business, governments and civil society to deliver a strong and ambitious treaty at UNEA.”

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Notes to the Editor

For more information, please contact:

WWF International: news@wwfint.org

Ellen MacArthur Foundation: pressoffice@emf.org

KEY POINTS FROM TODAY’S STATEMENT FROM BUSINESSES

In their statement, businesses have called for a treaty that:

• Includes both upstream and downstream policies, aiming to: keep plastics in the economy and out of the environment, reduce virgin plastic production and use, and decouple plastic production from the consumption of fossil resources
• Sets a clear direction to align governments, businesses and civil society behind a common understanding of the causes of plastic pollution and a shared approach to address them. For companies and investors, this creates a level playing field and prevents a patchwork of disconnected solutions, while setting the right enabling conditions to make a circular economy work in practice and at scale
• Provides a robust governance structure to ensure countries’ participation and compliance, with common definitions as well as harmonised standards applicable to all. This facilitates investments to scale innovations, infrastructures, and skills in the countries and industries most in need of international support

Today’s statement follows the publication of a report in 2020 by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), setting out the business case for a treaty. That report focused on how a treaty should stop the plastic pollution problem before its starts, set global standards, and support all countries and industries to play their part.

About WWF

WWF is an independent conservation organization, with over 30 million followers and a global network active in nearly 100 countries. Our mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Visit panda.org/news for the latest news and media resources; follow us on Twitter @WWF_media

About the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an international charity that develops and promotes the circular economy in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. We work with our network of private and public sector decision-makers, as well as academia, to build capacity, explore collaborative opportunities, and design and develop circular economy initiatives and solutions. Increasingly based on renewable energy, a circular economy is driven by design to eliminate waste, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature, to create resilience and prosperity for business, the environment, and society. 

Further information: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org | @circulareconom