Multi-stakeholder Forum INC1

Photos: IISD/ENB

In March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) unanimously endorsed in Nairobi a historic resolution to End Plastic Pollution (resolution 5/14), which gives the mandate to forge an international legally binding instrument by 2024 to prevent and reduce global plastic pollution. The instrument is to follow a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic. UNEA-5.2 (resolution 5/14) requested the UNEP Executive Director to convene a hybrid multi-stakeholder forum.

This forum took place on November 26, 2022, at Punta del Este Convention and Exhibition Centre, Uruguay, in conjunction with the first session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC-1), set to develop the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. The key outcomes and messages from the Forum were brought into INC-1 during the Stakeholder Dialogue Session on Tuesday 29th of November. See the agenda and the Reports and Recordings section for more information. 

An impression of the Multi-stakeholder Forum:

Objectives: The Forum aims to facilitate the exchange of information and gather perspectives from different stakeholders across the plastics life cycle. Which challenges and opportunities should be considered in the negotiations? Which actions are already helping to shift the needle on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment? Through the forum, stakeholders could:

1. Engage and exchange with different stakeholder groups active along the plastics value chain on key actions needed to end plastic pollution
2. Discuss and facilitate key messages to be reported to INC, to inform delegates on how stakeholders are approaching actions on plastic pollution and on key opportunities and challenges that the global agreement could address.
3. Acknowledge and share progress and impact from ongoing actions by different stakeholders across the full life cycle of plastics to inspire further collective action and impact through a multi-stakeholder action agenda.

Target audience: The Forum was open to all stakeholders, including governments, the private sector working on different stages of the plastics life cycle, scientists and researchers, the finance sector, civil society groups, including the informal sector, indigenous people, and youth.

Structure of this hybrid Forum: The Multi-stakeholder Forum was held in conjunction with the first session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. The Forum is held in a hybrid setting to facilitate the broadest multi-stakeholder participation. The in-person plenary sessions in Uruguay were broadcasted to facilitate the broadest multi-stakeholder participation. Curated roundtable discussions among stakeholders on targeted topics were organized in-person (in Uruguay) and online (via Zoom). 

Watch our Questions & Answers Session about the Forum

This recording of a Questions & Answers Session about the Forum with NGOs might also answer your questions about the objectives and the structure of the Forum, how this relates to INC1, and how to share your opinion. (The registration is currently closed, only member states can register until the 7th of November.)