Steph Slowinski, Research Biogeochemist in ERG, attended the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-3), in Nairobi, Kenya at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Headquarters on 13-19 November. Steph attended as part of the Environmental Defence Canada (EDC) delegation with Karen Wirsig, EDC Senior Program Manager. EDC is partnering with ERG in the Microplastics Fingerprinting at the Watershed Scale project. Civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations such as EDC, can attend UN international treaty negotiations to observe the negotiation process. They are also intervene in the plenary and contact group meetings to provide their civil society perspective to the negotiators, who are representatives of the UN Member States. The next intergovernmental negotiating committee meeting, INC-4, will be taking place in Ottawa in April 2024.

A summary article of the plastic pollution problem and how the treaty can help can be found here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03835-w

A press release by EDC about the negotiations in Nairobi at INC-3 can be found here:
https://environmentaldefence.ca/2023/11/20/plastic-treaty-negotiations-end-in-deadlock-in-nairobi/

Overhead photo of the entire meeting floor for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee.