ASH joins the Cease Tobacco Air pollution Alliance in attending the second session of the fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Convention (INC-5.2) of the United Nations Treaty to Finish Plastic Air pollution in Geneva, Switzerland from August 5 – 14, 2025. ASH’s Govt Director Laurent Huber will share updates and progress right here for our neighborhood to remain engaged and knowledgeable.
Visitor Weblog from Luciano Ruggia from the Swiss Affiliation for Tobacco Management
August 8, 2025 – The INC 5.2 negotiations in Geneva: a recipe for a plastic catastrophe?
As the primary week of what’s meant to be the ultimate spherical of negotiations in Geneva attracts to a detailed, the prospect of a significant international plastics treaty is quickly evaporating. A coalition of oil-producing international locations is doing all the pieces in its energy to sabotage progress. Their mission is obvious: to intestine the treaty of any binding commitments and substitute them with imprecise, toothless guarantees.
Delegates waste total periods debating two or three phrases in a single paragraph—whereas the planet drowns in plastic. For the oil bloc, solely the weakest, voluntary language is appropriate. The outcome? Paralysis.
And the ultimate insult? As revealed in a brand new report by CIEL, these negotiations are being overrun by company lobbyists. Like microplastics within the ocean, they’re all over the place—insidious, invisible, and unimaginable to filter out. Their aim: delay, distract, and derail.
Tobacco management advocates are preventing to incorporate a ban on cigarette filters within the treaty—an pressing measure supported by science, public well being, and environmental logic. However with no robust, enforceable settlement, this effort is sinking quick.
Except nearly all of international locations arise now and reclaim the method, the so-called “plastics treaty” dangers turning into little greater than a shiny pamphlet—permitted by polluters, signed in ink, and printed on recycled lies. It’s crucial that the INC get up and start negotiating in good religion.
ASH’s Key Factors for INC-5.2 can be found to overview in: English
