We encourage governments and other key stakeholders who meet in Busan this November for INC-5 to reach an agreement that will accelerate the policy development enabling circularity, which is indispensable in ending plastic pollution globally. We believe such an agreement can be reached if constructive discussions take place and if arguments used are fact-based and founded on objective assessments of robust scientific evidence and expert knowledge.

Unfortunately, we observe that this is not always the case. We are alarmed when negotiating parties use reports and apparent scientific facts to support their views that are not based on unbiased assessments, robust scientific evidence, and expert knowledge.

One example of this is the well-received report “State-of-the-science on plastic chemicals” from the PlastChem project financed by the Research Council of Norway and led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The main purpose of the PlastChem-report was to synthesize the state of the science of plastic chemicals as a robust knowledge base for informed policy development in the context of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution (INC) and other processes regarding plastics.

Read our comments to the report here:

Norner's response to PlastChem Report (Nov2024)

If you have any questions to Norner's response to this report, please contact:

Director Sustainability and Social Responsibility

Thor Kamfjord - thor.kamfjord@norner.no - Mobile +47 970 50 534