On 21 January 2025, the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) hosted a panel discussion to discuss the next steps in the global plastics negotiations. The fifth round of negotiations in November 2024 ended without an agreement – a failure? Doris Knoblauch, scientist at Ecologic Institute, took part in the panel discussion and reported on the progress of the negotiations and how things could now proceed from her perspective.

The evening began with a keynote speech by Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC) and Head of the INC Secretariat, who was connected online and reported on the progress of the negotiations to date: starting with INC-1 in Uruguay in 2022, through France (INC-2) and Kenya (INC-3) the following year, to Canada (INC-4) and South Korea (INC-5) in 2024. These five rounds of negotiations were supposed to lead to an agreement. However, the negotiating states have not yet been able to reach a final agreement on a treaty text.

The subsequent panel discussion with Dr Axel Borchmann, Head of Division W II 4 (Nature-friendly blue economy, marine uses in the North Sea and Baltic Sea) at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection and Head of the German INC delegation and INC Co-Chair, Audrey MacLean, Youth Delegate for Sustainable Development and Doris Knoblauch, Co-Coordinator Plastics, Ecologic Institute, was moderated by Oliver Hasenkamp, United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), and began by shedding light on the problem of the plastics crisis. The panel discussed questions such as: Why is plastic harmful? Which ecosystems are most affected? What solutions are there, and what can the plastics agreement contribute?

Audrey MacLean emphasised that the younger generation had a right to a healthy and intact environment. Doris Knoblauch emphasised that although the negotiations had not yet been concluded, they had not really failed. This was because the countries that wanted an ambitious agreement had focussed more on common ground and unifying elements in the last round of negotiations. As Axel Borchmann rightly emphasised: shaping is more difficult than blocking, and in this sense it is good that the states are taking the time to reach the strongest possible agreement – hopefully in 2025.