For Immediate Release: Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Contact: Alex Downing, alex@centerforcoalfieldjustice.org, 412-616-0283 (WhatsApp)
WITH HOURS OF NEGOTIATIONS LEFT, “UNACCEPTABLE” CHAIR TEXT ABANDONS PRETENSE OF CARING ABOUT A BETTER FUTURE FOR IMPACTED COMMUNITIES
The negotiation process is barreling towards a future bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry.
Geneva, Switzerland – The INC Chair’s new draft treaty text is completely unacceptable. It makes clear that the Bureau has bent to the intractable demands and industry-sponsored lies of obstructionist petrostates like the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia, ignoring overwhelming displays of courage and ambition from the vast majority of member states.
The removal of articles on production and chemicals and the watering-down of provisions on just transition and releases/leakages into voluntary measures is a betrayal of the mandate of these negotiations. Our communities, our environment, and our future generations cannot bear the weight of inaction imposed on us by this process.
We have one more day: now is the last time for this institution to find a backbone, to listen to the supermajority of countries who want to fight for a better world for all people. This treaty must include strong provisions on production reduction, the regulation of toxic chemicals, immediate elimination of the most harmful and unnecessary plastic products, a real just transition, and a process to improve this mechanism through voting at the COP. Anything less entrenches us in a legacy of toxic pollution and pay-to-play politics. We won’t hold our breath on the Chair – we urge ambitious member states to reject this text as a basis for substantive discussions.
Frontline and fenceline communities from the United States offer the following statements in reaction to the Chair’s new draft text:
“Indigenous, frontline, and fenceline communities will not stand for being abandoned by this process or by supposed allies who believe in ‘safer’ or ‘sustainable’ plastics. No plastic is safe. All plastic pollutes, from extraction and throughout its lifecycle,” says Frankie Orona, Executive Director of Society of Native Nations, based in San Antonio, Texas.
“This new draft text is an embarrassing, brazen betrayal of communities who were counting on this treaty to put us on a path toward tackling the plastics crisis. What we need now is for ambitious member states to call this for the failure that it is, and reject this text,” says Sarah Martik, Executive Director of Center for Coalfield Justice, based in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“The Chair’s text fundamentally fails to protect the health and safety of frontline and impacted communities. The removal of dedicated articles on plastic production and public health, as well as any mention of chemicals of concern, is an unacceptable concession to petrochemical and fossil fuel companies. This treaty cannot be yet another betrayal of our communities and their fight for real solutions that center equity, justice, and health across the entire life cycle of plastics.,” says Environmental Justice Communities Against Plastics, a coalition based in California.
“The failure to address plastic production and chemicals of concern means long-suffering communities in the US Gulf South will continue to be sacrificed and polluted, for profit. Increased production means increased pollution, and death. We refuse to be sacrificed and demand a treaty that respects our human right to live and breathe free,” says John Beard, CEO and Founder of Port Arthur Community Action Network.
“How long must my home be known as Cancer Alley? When will they stop sacrificing our bodies to this brutal legacy of the plantation system? Negotiators had all the power in the world to save the lives of our people in frontline communities. This new, watered down, greenwashed version of the treaty is a give-away to industry. It uses the force of international law to funnel money to false solutions that are killing us. It does nothing to help people dying in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley,” says Jo Banner, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of The Descendants Project, based in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana.
“The Chair’s new text is written for the fossil fuel industry. It fails our communities, our environment, and humanity as a whole. Plastic pollution must be reduced through production reduction measures and by eliminating harmful chemicals – none of this is included in this new text,” says KT Morelli, Organizer with Breathe Free Detroit.
“It is unfortunate that the health, life, and future of people doesn’t matter to UN Delegates who had the chance to save the earth we live in,” says Darryl Jordan, Organizer with Breathe Free Detroit.
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