From 5–14 August 2025, governments are negotiating in Geneva at the resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) to craft a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. These talks coincide with International Youth Day 2025, held under the theme “Local Youth Actions for the SDGs and Beyond.” This timing underscores a critical truth: the decisions being made now will shape the environmental future of young people everywhere.

The Sustainable Development Goals  especially SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production, SDG 14 on life below water, and SDG 15 on life on land — cannot be achieved without bold global action on plastics. Yet the negotiations remain divided on fundamental issues. Scope is unsettled. Article 6, on supply or sustainable production, has stalled amid disagreement. Article 3, on plastic products, is split between those pushing for global phase-outs and those relying on voluntary national measures. Article 11, on finance, still offers four competing structures with no clear path to adequate, predictable support for developing countries.

International Youth Day is a reminder that local youth actions — from clean-up campaigns to sustainable design initiatives are essential, but they cannot succeed alone. Without a strong treaty, national and community-level efforts will be undermined by weak global rules and loopholes that allow harmful plastics to keep flowing.

• As negotiations continue, youth demand answers to key questions:

• Will the treaty commit to phasing out the most harmful plastics through transparent, science-based criteria and binding timelines?

• Will design standards be mandatory, ensuring plastics are genuinely reusable, recyclable, and free of toxic chemicals in practice and at scale?

• Will a public registry and reporting system be established to guarantee transparency and accountability?

• Will developing countries receive the financial and technical means to meet treaty obligations?

• Will just transition provisions safeguard the rights and livelihoods of waste pickers and workers in the shift to a circular economy?

This treaty will define how the world tackles plastic pollution for decades. If it is weak, it will lock in low ambition, delay real change, and condemn future generations to live with escalating pollution and its health, economic, and ecological impacts. Transparency, public participation, and robust compliance must be built into its core.

International Youth Day is a call to action. Young people are not asking for any treaty — we are demanding a better treaty. No treaty is better than one that fails to solve the problem and instead hands down an even heavier burden to the generations that follow. As INC-5.2 heads into its final days, negotiators must decide: will they deliver an ambitious, enforceable treaty rooted in science and equity, or will they fail the very people who will inherit its consequences?