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The end of the year is packed with international negotiations that will shape the future of how international lawmaking bodies address climate change and plastic pollution. This week, the International Negotiating Committee for the Plastics Treaty meets for the third time, and the 28th Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations’ climate decision making body meets next month. This newsletter is a quick 5-minute read to keep you informed about ongoing and upcoming international environmental decision making.

Now: Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee 3 (INC-3)

The CIEL team holds a protest sign at the INC-2 in Paris, France

What you need to know:

• In 2022, the UN passed an order to negotiate a treaty to stop plastic pollution by the end of 2024. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee and Observers are working to develop the treaty text. Advocacy by CIEL and partners broadened countries’ focus to address the full polluting life cycle of plastics, not just ocean litter.
• At INC-2, some countries with a vested interest in prolonging reliance on fossil fuels and petrochemicals delayed treaty negotiations. INC-2, concluded with a mandate for the INC chair to write a rough draft of the treaty (zero draft) before the next round of negotiations (INC-3).

What’s ahead:

• At INC-3, CIEL will be pushing for a strong mandate to further develop the treaty text. It should guide future efforts to end plastic pollution, stressing the importance of clear, global measures aimed at reducing plastic production. Our focus is on legally binding commitments, not voluntary ones, so countries can’t opt out. We're committed to inclusive, transparent participation, including from scientists, and creating safeguards against conflicts of interest.
• We will advocate for funding and rules to support implementation by all parties. CIEL's goal is to establish a foundation for a world free of plastic pollution, safeguarding our planet's health for future generations.

Why this matters:

• The clock is ticking — INC-3 is the midpoint of negotiations to develop a treaty on plastics. It is imperative that the treaty matches the ambition originally envisioned by Member States and rights holders. We want to see a science-backed treaty, not a fossil-fueled one.

Upcoming: The Climate Conference of Parties (COP)

A group of demonstrators at COP 27 hold up a protest sign.

What you need to know:

• The climate COP is the UN-convened space where countries decide global goals and action to address climate change. Decisions under the UNFCCC are taken by consensus, rather than majority vote, allows single powerful countries to block progress and leads to lowest-common-denominator outcomes or no outcomes at all.
• However, last year COP27 fell short on addressing the root cause of climate change: fossil fuels. It’s no coincidence that over 600 fossil fuel lobbyists participated in COP27, distracting attention away from effective climate action and towards dangerous distractions like carbon credits and geoengineering that would enable business (and climate collapse) as usual.

Why this matters:

• The influence of fossil fuel interests in global climate decision making hinders effective climate action to protect human rights by keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C.

What’s ahead:

• At COP28, countries will convene to decide on the design of the Loss and Damage fund.
• COPs have repeatedly failed to address the key driver of the climate crisis: fossil fuels. Carbon emissions continue to rise year after year despite three decades of UN climate talks. The world urgently needs alternate governance spaces to confront the climate crisis.
• Despite its past failures, COP is currently the primary space to advance international conversations on human rights-based climate action and the distribution of finances to remedy climate harms. We must hold the bar as high as possible and defend against backsliding to hold governments accountable for ensuring that all climate action is human-rights based.

Report back: the Transitional Committee (TC5) meeting

What you need to know:

• The UN-created transitional committee was tasked with recommending how to implement the Loss and Damage Fund before COP28.

Demonstrators rally for loss and damage funds from the United Nations at COP27.

• “Loss and Damage” is financial support for communities impacted by climate change and is key to addressing human rights violations resulting from climate impacts. The Loss and Damage Fund should play a central role in advancing justice and providing remedy for harmed communities.
• The Transitional Committee’s task was to decide on how to set up the Loss and Damage Fund with critical decisions such as whether it will be an independent office, who has the responsibility to pay, and how will the funds reach those communities that need it most.

Why this matters:

• Access to remedy is a human right. As the reliance on fossil fuels worsens the climate crisis, we are witnessing widespread harms to communities and ecosystems, mostly impacting those who have polluted the least.
• Wealthy countries with a long history of pollution have a responsibility to pay for the damages decades of climate action have caused. It is an essential part of climate justice to provide finance to enable those communities to effectively deal with their harms. Importantly, some things can’t be replaced by funding, like the loss of lives or of Indigenous People’s cultural heritage and traditions.
• The World Bank is the wrong place to house the Fund as it would impede justice for communities. CIEL advocates for an independent Loss and Damage Fund under the UN Climate Convention that is rooted in human rights obligations.

What’s ahead:

• The Transitional Committee has finalized its recommendations for COP28. The Loss and Damage Fund currently being proposed will not deliver justice for communities harmed by the climate crisis. It remains to be seen whether further discussions will happen at COP28, or whether Parties will adopt this text and the fight for a better fund and climate reparations will continue.

Report back: the ITLOS tribunal

CIEL's paper submission to ITLOS.

For a full summary of the ITLOS hearing, click here.

What you need to know:

• ITLOS, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, is an independent judicial UN-established body resolving disputes and providing guidance in relation to the way the ocean and its resources are used.
• The most recent ITLOS session on climate change addressed whether greenhouse gas emissions count as marine pollution, and if so, how nations must reduce, prevent, and control greenhouse gas emissions to protect our oceans. More than 50 States and organizations, including CIEL, weighed in through written submissions and/or oral arguments.

Why this matters:

• A favorable ITLOS ruling recognizing greenhouse gas emissions as marine pollution would have positive impacts on environmental conservation, climate change mitigation, and the well-being of both marine ecosystems and the communities dependent on them.

What’s ahead:

• The ITLOS opinion will be released in the next 6-8 months. A strong opinion in favor of stopping marine pollution would ideally clarify countries’ duties to cut greenhouse emissions and protect island countries, coastal communities, and cities that rely on a healthy ocean.

CIEL in the News

• Carroll Muffett, our President, was interviewed by the Atlantic on the links between insurance rates, the climate crisis, and fossil fuels. Caroll states that “insurance companies are heavily invested in fossil fuels,” and that “insurance companies are some of the largest financial actors in the economy.”
• Carla Garcia Zendejas, our director of People, Land, and Resources, was mentioned in an article by The Grist on the rights of Sami indigenous people in Norway whose communities have been threatened by an illegal wind farm. Carla warns that the Norwegian government is denying the rights of Indigenous Sámi to their cultural heritage and livelihoods and that the continued construction of wind turbines on protected lands casts “a shadow on the Norwegian government’s commitment to upholding human rights obligations, it questions the rule of law.”
• In an article by the Advocate in Louisiana, Jane Patton, our plastics and petrochemicals campaigns manager, advised caution for air capturing technologies, noting they are “like trying to mop the ocean.” Jane called for Louisiana to focus on renewable energy over carbon removal projects, saying “there are so many more jobs to be found in increasing the energy efficiency of homes and transitioning the grid to renewable and solar—which is a technology that we can deploy immediately with resources from the federal government.”

Join our Team — CIEL is Hiring!

Are you passionate about human rights and the environment? Want to put your skills to use to protect people and the planet? Apply to join our team. We are hiring for the following positions:

• An organized and strategic US Agrochemicals and Fossil Fuels Campaigner. The campaigner will use expertise, advocacy, and organizing strategies to stop the expansion of (blue) hydrogen and ammonia production, protect food systems, strengthen agriculture policies, and address health concerns around hydrogen, CCS, agrochemicals, and fossil fuels.
• A Finance Campaigner for Petrochemicals with at least three years of experience in advocacy campaigning and familiarity with legal frameworks, especially in corporate and securities law. The campaigner will build out CIEL’s strategies to expose the growing legal and financial risks of petrochemical investment for companies, investors, and government decision makers.
• We are looking for legal interns in both Washington, DC and Geneva (climate issues only for Geneva). Our legal internship program is open to all students currently enrolled in a course of study leading to a postgraduate law degree and offers a unique opportunity for law students to develop skills in the field of international environmental law, and use legal strategies to protect human rights and the environment.

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