“Betrayal of good faith diplomacy”: Marine expert condemns draft plastic treaty text
After six rounds of negotiations spanning three years, the world’s attempt to forge a binding global plastics treaty hangs in the balance as INC5-2 enters its final day in Geneva. OceanCare’s Managing Director Fabienne McLellan offers her assessment of the Chair’s compromise text released this afternoon.
„In this form, the Chair’s proposed text is unacceptable for those defending the Ocean, people and the planet. In trying to appease everyone – particularly the low-ambition states that never wanted this treaty in the first place. The current version of the text has sacrificed all the meaningful elements, leaving us stuck with business as usual. The progress made at INC-4 and during the last 9 days has gone in vain.
“All the important provisions have been removed or weakened – such as production reduction, ban of harmful chemicals, voting on decision making, reuse, addressing sources of plastic pollution. Ghost gear – which makes up 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and kills marine animals for decades – has been completely erased from the text. The standalone article on sustainable production (Article 6) has also been deleted in its entirety. This is a betrayal of those ambitious countries that have called for a reduction in plastic production in any public declarations.
“The petrochemical lobby’s fingerprints are all over this text. They seem to have successfully watered down production measures and eliminated any meaningful landing zones. It is critical that the ambitious group of 100+ countries act as a block in the next hours and support each other in defending a treaty fit for purpose and that changes the status quo.
“Progressive countries must reject this text in its current form. They cannot accept a treaty that completely ignores binding upstream measures and fails to address sources of plastic pollution, such as fishing and aquaculture gear – the Ocean’s most urgent threat. Ghost gear provisions and binding production measures must be restored, and ecosystem-based remediation explicitly included. The EU, Switzerland, and other ocean champions have the power to demand better – and they must use it now.
“The Ocean needed binding protections today. Instead, it risks to get a promise that maybe, someday, if enough countries agree, something might be done. The next hours will determine whether the world gets the chance of binding protections for marine ecosystems – or walks away empty-handed while the Ocean drowns in plastic.”
Fabienne McLellan is on-ground in Geneva and available for interviews immediately. She has been engaged in these negotiations since 2018 on behalf of OceanCare, building the scientific evidence base and advocating for both significant production cuts and comprehensive marine protection measures.
Further information
- OceanCare et al.: Untangled – The plastics treaty’s critical role in tackling fishing gear. Policy briefing for the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee for UNEA 5/14 (May 2023)
- Break Free From Plastic coalition: Manifesto for a Future Free from Plastic Pollution(July 2025)
- OceanCare press release: UN Negotiations in Busan: Bridge Built Towards Historic Global Plastics Treaty(03/12/2024)