HAC Member States Ministerial Joint Statement INC-3

In advance of the third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (hereafter the treaty), we the 64 Ministers of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution:

Reaffirm our shared commitment to end plastic pollution by 2040 and our call for the establishment of an ambitious and effective treaty to protect human health and the environment from plastic pollution based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastics.

Express our deep concern about projections of a continued and significant scaling up of plastic production, a near doubling of mismanaged plastics, and a more than 60 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 from the plastic system in the absence of new and effective global measures.[1]

Highlight new research that found 15 global policy interventions across the plastics lifecycle could reduce annual mismanaged plastics by 90 percent and reduce primary plastic production by 30 percent by 2040, while recognising that additional measures are needed to fully end plastic pollution. This outlines the potential for common legally binding obligations and control measures for countries in the INC to consider.[2]

Welcome the recently adopted resolution by the 76th World Health Assembly on the impacts of chemicals, waste and pollution on human health, which seeks to support the World Health Organization to scale up its work on plastics and health to advance information of the potential human health impacts associated with plastic.[3]

Underscore that INC-3 in Nairobi represents the halfway point for negotiations of the treaty and emphasise the importance of the INC completing its work by the end of 2024.

Reiterate our call for binding provisions in the treaty to restrain and reduce the consumption and production of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels; eliminate and restrict unnecessary, avoidable, or problematic plastics, as well as the plastic polymers, chemical constituents and plastic products that are of particular concern due to their adverse effects on the environment and human health; increase the safe circularity of plastics in the economy, guided by the waste hierarchy; manage plastic waste in an environmentally sound and safe manner, and eliminate the release of plastics, including microplastics, to air, water and land.

Continue to call for binding provisions in the treaty to ensure reporting and transparency across the value chain of plastics as well as for the mobilization of the means of implementation from all sources that are necessary to deliver action on the ground to end plastic pollution.

Urge the private sector to scale up and speed up their investment for sustainability and safe circularity, noting that common global rules will provide opportunities for businesses committed to sustainability in all regions, and commit to the principle that polluters should be held responsible for their activities and products, recognizing that extended producer responsibility schemes can be part of the solution.

To enable timely and sufficient progress in the upcoming rounds of negotiations, we:

Encourage all INC Member States to immediately and constructively engage at INC-3 on the basis of the Zero Draft, with the goal of making substantial progress on the text.

Call for decisions at INC-3 to:

• Request the Chair, with support of the Secretariat, to prepare a first draft of the treaty for consideration at INC-4, based on discussions at INC-3;
• Launch technical work in the intersessional period to assemble the best available science, data and knowledge to inform the INC in its deliberations of the draft treaty text.

We reiterate our shared commitment to working with all INC Member States, to build trust and common understanding in order to deliver the ambitious, legally binding instrument needed to achieve our common goal of ending plastic pollution by 2040.

Find here a copy of the Ministerial Joint Statement for INC-3 with list of Members of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution supporting the Joint Ministerial Statement for INC-3.

[1] Systemiq (2023): Towards Ending Plastic Pollution by 2040: 15 Global Policy Interventions for Systems Change. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 2023:539.

[2] Systemiq (2023): Towards Ending Plastic Pollution by 2040: 15 Global Policy Interventions for Systems Change. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers, 2023:539.

[3] WHA76.17: The impact of chemicals, waste and pollution on human health. https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA76/A76_R17-en.pdf