Ahead of the third round of Global Plastics Treaty negotiations you can now download Fidra’s response on plastic pellets to help in developing your own organisation's submission to the UN.
The Global Plastics Treaty offers an important opportunity to address the issue of plastic pollution globally, with addressing plastic pellet pollution one crucial part of this. It is vital all sources of plastic pollution, both upstream and downstream are integrated into a final treaty.
Following the second round of negotiations for a UN Global Plastic Treaty at INC-2, the secretariat was given the mandate to prepare a ‘zero draft’ ahead of the next round of negotiations, known as INC-3, taking place in November 2023. The secretariat requested submissions from NGOs and governments for elements not discussed at INC-2 (e.g. scope and principles of the treaty) and areas of intersessional work, which will help to inform the next round of negotiations at INC-3.
Supporting submissions to the UN
Here at Fidra we have prepared a response to this request from the secretariat. In our response we have highlighted the need for the issue of plastic pellet pollution to be included in a final treaty, explained the impacts of plastic pellet pollution to the environment, human health and communities and lay out the mechanisms required to address the issue. Our response is now available as a resource to use in preparation of your own submission via our information hub here
If you are a NGO, we invite you to use our response and information on plastic pellet pollution in developing your own organisation's submission.
To further help in informing submissions, Fidra along with Oracle Environmental Experts are excited to launch a new report mapping the global plastic pellet supply chain. The report contains information on a regional and global scale, investigating the impacts and locations of the global plastic pellet supply chain, including transport routes, petrochemical sites, plastic mannufacturing sites, reported pellet pollution locations and more. The findings of this report can be used as further evidence in submissions calling for an end to plastic pellet pollution. You can watch our latest webinar discussing the key findings of the report here.
Read the brand new report here
Fidra is also supporting the submission to the secretariat being developed by Fauna and Flora, Zoological Society London and supported by other NGOs.
Making a submission
Deadline for submissions from observer organisations is the 15th August 2023, see submission details on the UNEP website. Please note the UN only accepts submission's from UN accredited stakeholders however NGOs looking to engage in the Global Plastics Treaty may also wish to contact their national government to raise issues with their member state negotiators. Previous member state submissions often have contact details for national negotiators and are available on the UNEP website. The member state submission deadline is 15 September 2023.
Further information
You can learn more about the Global Plastics Treaty and how it could address the issue of plastic pellet pollution in our recent webinar available to watch here.