To support our vision and associated outcomes, a legally binding treaty must set the right enabling conditions to successfully scale a circular economy for plastic and end plastic pollution. For businesses and investors, this means creating a level playing field and preventing a patchwork of disconnected solutions. To achieve this, we believe the treaty should include the following key elements:

1. The treaty must set clear goals, targets, and obligations, with a sense of urgency, that all Parties to the treaty will be required to implement in their national jurisdictions to align the actions of governments, businesses and civil society. These provisions must be based on common definitions as well as harmonised standards and metrics, and include a review mechanism to gradually strengthen them over time.

2.  The treaty must define a comprehensive and coordinated set of upstream and downstream policy measures that help achieve our desired global outcomes and are adaptable to local conditions, including:

• A timeline for the phasing-out of problematic plastics that hinder progress towards a circular economy, pose critical health risks, or have a high risk of ending up in nature

• Harmonised regulatory and financial incentives to scale circular economy solutions by stimulating the necessary innovation, investment and consumer choices

• Mechanisms to ensure dedicated, ongoing and sufficient funding for the after-use collection and treatment of plastic, for example through well-designed mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility schemes

• Provisions to protect and respect the livelihoods, health, labour and human rights of all people involved in the value chain, for example through the recognition of and engagement with workers in informal and cooperative settings as important stakeholders to achieve a safe and socially-just circular economy

3. The treaty must include instruments to support implementation and monitoring of progress at national, regional and global levels, including by:

• Supporting policy impact assessment, for example through the establishment of a scientific advisory body, to better understand environmental, social, and economic impacts over the whole life cycle of plastics

• Strengthening accountability of governments and businesses, for example through globally harmonised disclosure obligations and reporting standards

• Ensuring countries’ effective participation through a dedicated financial mechanism and capacity building to develop and implement national legislation and action plans

• Improving transparency on plastic flows through harmonised monitoring, to track progress towards the implementation of circular economy solutions, for example using common rules on data and information sharing across the value chain