Geneva, Switzerland. Five days into the final round of Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, progress remains far from what is needed to protect people and the planet.
Campaigners say enough is enough the process must change, promises must be kept, and governments must deliver a strong treaty to end plastic pollution.
Voices from across the world including waste pickers, frontline communities, scientists, healthcare professionals, children and youth, women, businesses, and non-governmental organisations — are uniting in a single demand: governments must step up and finalise a meaningful, enforceable agreement.
Expressing his remarks on August 9, 2025, Hellen Kahaso Dena, Greenpeace Africa’s Pan-Africa Plastics Project Lead, warned against delays caused by a handful of countries.
“We cannot let a few Member States derail and delay the negotiations like they have done in the last five INC meetings,” she said.
“Governments must seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, use every tool available to make progress, and end corporate capture of these negotiations. African governments must show the same leadership they have in previous negotiations and resist any attempt to leave Geneva with just a waste management treaty.”
Graham Forbes, Greenpeace Head of Delegation to the Global Plastics Treaty and Greenpeace USA’s Global Plastics Campaign Lead, stressed that ambition means addressing plastic production at its source.
“In Busan and in Nice, governments promised ambition and ambition means cutting plastic production,” Forbes said.
“A weak treaty would be a betrayal that further burdens the Global South and emboldens the world’s biggest polluters. All countries that promised ambition must step up, knowing the public is behind them and depending on their leadership.”
He warned that the principle of multilateralism is at stake.
“Consensus has failed due to the tyranny of the few,” he said.
“High-ambition countries must stand by their word or be remembered as the ones who let the world choke on plastic. Governments promised ambition. Now they must deliver not compromise.”