Covering Plastic Waste at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention

This briefing note outlines the views of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) on key agenda items related to plastic waste at the seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-17) to the Basel Convention.

Our focus includes concluding amendments for legal clarity in waste classifications, strengthening the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure, ensuring further considerations on plastic waste are in line with the most up-to-date science, maintaining the integrity of the Basel Convention’s role in transboundary plastic waste management. Additionally, EIA supports strengthening the clearinghouse mechanism to facilitate information-sharing, capacity-building and technical collaboration using lessons learned from the Montreal Protocol.