ASH joins the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance in attending the second session of the fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Conference (INC-5.2) of the United Nations Treaty to End Plastic Pollution in Geneva, Switzerland from August 5 – 14, 2025. ASH’s Executive Director Laurent Huber will share updates and progress here for our community to stay engaged and informed.
Guest Blog from Luciano Ruggia from the Swiss Association for Tobacco Control
August 8, 2025 – The INC 5.2 negotiations in Geneva: a recipe for a plastic disaster?
As the first week of what is meant to be the final round of negotiations in Geneva draws to a close, the prospect of a meaningful global plastics treaty is rapidly evaporating. A coalition of oil-producing countries is doing everything in its power to sabotage progress. Their mission is clear: to gut the treaty of any binding commitments and replace them with vague, toothless promises.
Delegates waste entire sessions debating two or three words in a single paragraph—while the planet drowns in plastic. For the oil bloc, only the weakest, voluntary language is acceptable. The result? Paralysis.
And the final insult? As revealed in a new report by CIEL, these negotiations are being overrun by corporate lobbyists. Like microplastics in the ocean, they’re everywhere—insidious, invisible, and impossible to filter out. Their goal: delay, distract, and derail.
Tobacco control advocates are fighting to include a ban on cigarette filters in the treaty—an urgent measure supported by science, public health, and environmental logic. But without a strong, enforceable agreement, this effort is sinking fast.
Unless the majority of countries stand up now and reclaim the process, the so-called “plastics treaty” risks becoming little more than a glossy pamphlet—approved by polluters, signed in ink, and printed on recycled lies. It is imperative that the INC wake up and begin negotiating in good faith.
ASH’s Key Points for INC-5.2 are available to review in: English
