Norway and Rwanda will chair a new 20-country coalition that aims to end plastic pollution by 2040.
The High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution wants to develop a global treaty in the next two years, with the aim of restraining plastic consumption and production to sustainable levels. This includes measures to minimise demand and increase supply of recycled plastics, and to increase recycled content.
It hopes to enable a circular economy for plastics by setting out standards and criteria for the design of plastic products to ensure durability, recyclability and safety. This includes a target to ban "problematic" plastics that cannot be easily recycled, an aim to increase the transparency of information available about plastic, and to develop recycling infrastructure.
No specific details have been announced, although some governments have suggested building support for bans and restrictions on some plastics and taxes on plastics packaging. The coalition's first formal meeting will take place on 28 November in Uruguay, before which members will meet in New York during the September UN General Assembly.
The coalition said it projects global plastic production to double in the next 20 years, having already increased by that amount from 2000 to 2019, to 460mn t. It expects the rise to be largely driven by increases in packaging, which accounts for around half of plastic waste generation, as well as automotive and construction. These three sectors combined will make up two thirds of all plastic use, it said.
The full list of countries includes EU members Germany, France, Portugal, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, together with some non-EU European countries and nations from Latin America, North America and Africa. The US, China and India, three of the world's largest plastic consumers, are not included, with no signees also from the major plastic producing region of the Middle East.