In March 2022, the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted a resolution to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, considering it a “serious environmental problem at a global scale”.

The negotiations, organised through the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), started on the same year, with a view of completing the process by the end of 2024. After consensus could not be reached in 5th session of the INC that took in November/December 2024 place in Busan (South Korea) (INC-5.1), the session was reconvened in August 2025 in Geneva (Switzerland) (INC-5.2) with the goal to finalise the instrument’s text.

The negotiations have ended without consensus. The INC has agreed to resume negotiations at a future date.