At the start of 2026, the world’s efforts to negotiate a global plastics pollution treaty remained deadlocked. Then in February, Julio Cordano was appointed the new chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC) with the hope he can help move the treaty process forward decisively.Cordano rarely gives media interviews, but he responded to some of Mongabay’s written questions on how he plans to forge ahead toward an international plastics pollution agreement.Cordano continues to fully back the UN treaty negotiations process, which requires any final accord be achieved by consensus between all the national parties. He declined to comment on other possible routes to an agreement that break from the traditional negotiating protocol.Observers of the treaty process also weighed in for this story, offering a range of views from hope to skepticism that consensus can get producing nations to mutually agree to major plastic production limits.
You can’t dictate a solution to the worldwide plastic pollution crisis, according to Julio Cordano, the new chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a global plastic treaty. He said consensus will be needed.
