Global South Unites for a Robust Financial Mechanism for prospective plastic pollution instrument

GAIA Asia Pacific and GAIA Africa hosted Global South member state delegates in an online panel discussion titled “Advancing a Robust Financial Mechanism for the Prospective Plastics Instrument” on 24 June 2025.

The event comes at a critical juncture in the treaty negotiations. At the last round of negotiations (INC-5.1), an overwhelming majority of 151 countries—primarily from the Global South—called for a new, dedicated financial mechanism. Yet the current chair’s text contains weak, voluntary language that fails to reflect this broad support.

Delegates from Djibouti, Bangladesh, Ecuador, and Fiji came together to highlight the disproportionate burden of plastic pollution on developing countries — including those with economies in transition, small island developing states (SIDS), and downstream countries affected by pollution — and to emphasize the urgent need for robust financing to tackle the plastic crisis.

Ms. Hibaa-Haibado Ismael, INC focal point for Djibouti, highlighted opportunities to strengthen the chair’s text by retaining the proposal for a new dedicated multilateral fund and remediation fund, prioritizing financing for developing countries and a just transition, excluding climate- and toxics-intensive technologies (e.g. incineration), and omitting plastic credits due to their history of pollution, fraud, unreliability, and the lessons learned with carbon credits.

Speaking on behalf of the AOSIS group of countries on the necessity of a dedicated fund, Dr Sivendra Michael, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Fiji, said that, “existing portfolios cannot and must not be used as a substitute for the financial mechanism under this treaty. Instead, they should be made to complement it through alignment, coherence, and coordination.

When discussing lessons from existing funds such as the GEF (Global Environmental Fund), member states were unanimous in raising concerns regarding access to funds. In particular, Mr Walter Schuldt Espinel, Minister, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Ecuador to the United Nations Office, emphasizing the urgency of a dedicated fund, said that we cannot “delay the establishment of the fund and leave it for the COPs (Conference of Parties) to decide.”

Dr Shahriar Hossian, advisor for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bangladesh, reminded participants that the “plastics treaty is an environmental health issue” and so the financial mechanism must hold polluters accountable such as through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a Plastic Pollution Fee (PPF) and support just transition.

Regarding achieving convergence on a new dedicated fund for the plastics instrument at the upcoming negotiations (INC 5.2) this August, delegates articulated the need for political courage. Dr Michael said that “meeting the obligations [of the prospective agreement] depends on adequacy of funding. This is how we engage in negotiations in good faith and reciprocal responsibility.”

Ms. Ismael reiterated this leadership in her intervention, saying that if we want to have an ambitious treaty, we need to raise the ambition to par the means of implementation, it’s the only logical way to achieve a successful treaty.

As the negotiations head inch closer to INC-5.2, speakers agreed that now is the time for coalition-building and a united front from the Global South.

We echo the words of Dr. Michael, “Geneva must not be another opportunity for procedural paralysis. Finance is a gateway to implementation and a bridge to ambition, and a cornerstone to justice.”

GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries. With our work we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, zero waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped.