Health takes centre stage as world leaders gather for final plastic treaty talks in Geneva

The annual health-related economic losses associated with plastics are now estimated at over $1.5 trillion globally.

With accelerating plastic production—from just 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 475 Mt in 2022, with projections nearing 1,200 Mt by 2060, Geneva talks are seen as a last chance to reverse some of the damage caused. Photo | AFP

GENEVA: As world leaders, negotiators, and scientists converge in Geneva from August 5 to14 for what could be the final round of talks on the Global Plastics Treaty, a new report published by The Lancet has put health at the heart of the plastics debate.

The report, The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics, describes plastic pollution as a “grave, growing, and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health,” and presents the most comprehensive assessment to date of the links between plastics and health across the full life cycle of plastic—from extraction and production to use and disposal.

This framing of the issue with a thrust on health could become a decisive force in Geneva, as countries struggle to align on contentious issues like capping plastic production, chemical bans, and funding mechanisms.

The Lancet report warns that plastic chemicals and microplastics now infiltrate every stage of human life—from fetal development to old age—and disproportionately harm vulnerable populations, including infants, pregnant women, workers, and fenceline communities.

The annual health-related economic losses associated with plastics are now estimated at over $1.5 trillion globally. Coinciding with the treaty negotiations, the Countdown on Health and Plastics is being launched as an independent global monitoring system, inspired by the successful Lancet Countdown on Climate Change.

It will track a suite of scientifically robust indicators across four domains: plastic production and emissions, exposures, health impacts, and policy interventions.

Prof Joacim Rocklöv, Co-Chair of the new Countdown, noted, “This new Countdown will ensure that health remains at the centre of the plastics pollution conversation, just as we have seen happen in climate negotiations post-COP28 in Dubai.”

With accelerating plastic production—from just 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 475 Mt in 2022, with projections nearing 1,200 Mt by 2060, Geneva talks are seen as a last chance to reverse some of the damage caused. Shockingly, over 8 billion tonnes of plastic waste now pollute the environment, with less than 10% ever recycled.

At the Gallifrey Foundation-hosted pre-summit event, Panama’s Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez warned delegates of the risk of failure: “Will we look back in 30 years, seeing plastic production triple, and realise we missed our last best chance?”

“More plastics is simply more pollution and harm,” said Bjorn Beeler of IPEN.

“This report provides additional evidence to the choir of health scientists warning decision makers. Governments must listen to science and health realities.”

One of the most polarising issues on the table is whether the treaty should impose a global cap on virgin plastic production. While Norway’s Torbjørn Graff Hugo argues against such a measure as a “blunt instrument,” environmentalists like Amy Youngman of the Environmental Investigation Agency counter, “You can’t mop the floor if the tap is still running.”

The report also flags the escalating climate threat of plastics. In 2020, plastic production accounted for an estimated 2.45 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, or nearly 5% of global industrial emissions, largely driven by coal and fracked gas.

Without intervention, these emissions could triple by 2050, exacerbating health impacts through heatwaves, floods, and vector-borne diseases.