Geneva: Efforts are getting underway in Geneva to finalize a global agreement to tackle the staggering and growing amount of plastic waste and its impact on human health, marine life, and the economy. Unless an international accord is inked, plastic waste is projected to triple by 2060, causing significant damage - including to human health - according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

According to United Nations, the UNEP-led talks follow a decision in 2022 by Member States to develop an international legally binding instrument to end the plastic pollution crisis, including in the world's seas, within two years. The aim of the deal is for it to encompass the full life cycle of plastics, from design to production and disposal, to promote plastic circularity and prevent leakage of plastics in the environment, according to the text being used to guide the talks of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) gathering in the Swiss city.

For 10 days from 5-14 August, delegations from 179 countries are due to pore over the INC text as they meet at UN Geneva, alongside more than 1,900 other participants from 618 observer organizations including scientists, environmentalists, and industry representatives. A key aim of the meeting is to share tried and tested ways of reducing plastic use, such as non-plastic substitutes and other safer alternatives.

Ahead of the talks in Geneva, the respected medical journal The Lancet published a warning that the materials used in plastics cause extensive disease at every stage of the plastics life cycle and at every stage of human life. According to more than two dozen health experts cited in the journal, infants and young children are particularly vulnerable. Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognized danger to human and planetary health and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding $1.5 trillion annually, it noted.

Leading the talks in Geneva is Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (or the INC) on Plastic Pollution, and Head of the INC Secretariat. In 2024 alone, humanity was projected to consume over 500 million tonnes of plastic. Of this, 399 million tonnes will become waste, she said.

Five negotiation sessions towards a plastics treaty have taken place so far. The first was in Uruguay in November 2022. Two more followed in 2023 - in France and Kenya. In April 2024, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) convened in Canada. Most recently, discussions took place in Busan, Republic of Korea, at the end of last year. These talks were adjourned after delegations agreed to resume discussions in Geneva, under the leadership of the Chair of the Committee, Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso of Ecuador.