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This policy brief by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) analyzes the status of the global plastics treaty following the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee's fifth session (INC-5.3) in February 2026. It specifically evaluates the 'start-and-strengthen' approach—a model where a treaty is adopted with core obligations and progressively enhanced through future decisions—contrasting it with 'bottom-up' models based on voluntary national actions. The brief examines three draft texts from the Chair and various member state proposals, arguing that for a start-and-strengthen model to succeed, the treaty must include legally operative objectives, periodic effectiveness evaluations, and a procedural path for normative evolution, such as voting mechanisms to avoid deadlocks.

This document introduces a report by the Center for International Environmental Law regarding the negotiation timeline for a future plastics treaty. It highlights that while the United Nations Environment Assembly aimed for completion by the end of 2024, significant work remains, prompting an analysis of historical negotiation models such as the Minamata Convention, the Rotterdam Convention, and BBNJ.

This fact sheet by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) outlines the legal limitations of Conference of the Parties (COP) decisions, contrasting them with treaties, protocols, and amendments. Using examples from the Basel and Kyoto frameworks, it warns that relying on future COP decisions to establish critical obligations for a future plastics treaty may lead to significant delays or failure due to ratification requirements and consensus-based voting.

This fact sheet by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) analyzes different structures of international legal instruments—substantive, hybrid, and framework conventions—to provide recommendations for the development of a future plastics treaty.

This policy brief by the Center for International Environmental Law discusses the role of implementation and compliance mechanisms in Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) to provide recommendations for the negotiation of a plastics treaty.

This briefing from the Center for International Environmental Law clarifies the distinctions and complementarities between national implementation plans (NIPs), national action plans (NAPs), and nationally determined contributions (NDCs) within the context of multilateral environmental agreements, specifically providing recommendations for a future plastics treaty.