The Sustainable and Just Economic Systems (SJES) programme team from the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), represented by Associate Representative Andrés Naranjo and Senior Technical Advisor Ronald Steenblik, recently participated in the fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5), held from 25 November to 1 December in Busan, Republic of Korea, as part of the FWCC delegation.

QUNO’s Sustainable and Just Economic Systems programme, in partnership with Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd., has published the Phase 1 Report of their project titled Plastic Money: Turning Off the Subsidies Tap. This report represents a crucial step in uncovering the extensive subsidies received by the primary plastics polymer (PPP) production industry, a sector that plays a pivotal role in global plastic pollution.

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) organised an influential residential workshop at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, on Lake Como, Italy, entitled “Plastic Money: Turning off the Subsidies Tap” from 26 to 30 March 2024. 

QUNO’s Sustainable and Just Economic Systems (SJES) programme took the lead on this event and brought together a diverse group of 21 stakeholders. This included government representatives, inter-governmental bodies, legal scholars and social scientists, non-governmental organisations, and experts from charitable foundations. 

The recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting on ending plastic pollution raised concerns about the pace and direction of negotiations to finalise a legally binding treaty.

This was UNEP’s third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee — it was called INC-3 — and it concluded last week in Kenya, Nairobi. INC aims to gather various stakeholders to create an agreement that would hold governments accountable to enforce laws to curb plastic pollution.

In preparation for the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Develop an International Legally Binding Instrument on Plastic Pollution, Including in the Marine Environment (INC-3), taking place from November 13-19, 2023, in Nairobi, Kenya, the INC Secretariat facilitated a series of technical webinars. Two of these sessions allowed observers to present submissions that could inform the committee's work.

Ending plastic pollution globally remains a top priority for the Sustainable and Just Economic Systems (SJES) programme at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Recently, SJES participated in the second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) focused on a treaty to end plastic pollution. This initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) concluded in Paris at the beginning of June, gathering various civil society organisations lobbying to end plastic pollution.