Trade measures key to success of global regulations to curb plastic pollution

Mumbai: As the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) of the United Nations Environment Assembly continues negotiations ahead of a final August 2025 meeting, it is essential that the full lifespan of plastic products be taken into account, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Plastics and their raw materials are a highly globalized market, and a treaty that fails to address trade will likely have a limited impact on global production and consumption, states IEEFA, which examines issues related to energy markets, trends and policies, in a briefing note. 

The briefing note focuses on monomers and polymers that make the most problematic—single-use plastics (SUPs). SUPs are the single largest category contributing to plastic pollution. The UN has identified their indiscriminate use as a driver of the triple planetary crisis consisting of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

“Our research shows that petrostates lead trade in ethylene polymers—one of the largest categories of polymers contributing to the production of single-use plastics.,” said Swathi Seshadri, IEEFA energy specialist, petrochemicals and co-author of the briefing note.

“An assessment of the existing laws to regulate plastic pollution demonstrates an inadequate legal framework to phase out primary plastic polymers,” said Abhishek Sinha, an IEEFA energy finance analyst and co-author of the briefing note. “The few regulatory laws in existence are at the national level—a global regulation is needed to prevent petrochemical companies from keeping plastics in circulation.”

“If parties manage to secure rigorous trade enforcement provisions, they will drive decarbonization in the process,” said co-author Connor Chung, an IEEFA energy finance analyst.

With the petrochemical industry facing prospects of a secular decline, the sector is likely to pursue new products and markets aggressively to help boost business. If the production, trade and consumption of primary plastic polymers is not regulated and a proposed international legally binding instrument only focuses on product design and waste management, it will only transform the nature of the beast rather than eliminating it.