Negotiation results at the Fourth Conference on global agreement on plastic pollution

Abstract

In the context of plastic pollution becoming increasingly serious and becoming one of the global environmental crises, in 2022, United Nations member countries agreed to negotiate to develop a binding legal instrument to end plastic pollution. The fourth conference of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument (the Agreement) on plastic pollution (INC-4 Conference) took place from April 21st to 30th, 2024 in Ottawa, Canada, following the previous Conferences. INC-1 in 2022 and INC-2 and INC-3 in 2023, where a number of important outcomes were achieved towards concluding negotiations and possibly adopting a global agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024 to respond to the above crisis.