Ancillary functions of multilateral environmental agreements for sustainable plastics economies

Human-induced climate change and other global environmental problems have taken a toll on the environment and human resilience, putting lives at risk. Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, have become critical instruments for fostering discussion and triggering action to address these environmental problems. Although the effectiveness of the implementation of MEAs has been questioned in research, which has assessed effectiveness through a legally-binding lens (i.e. a focus on achieving the objectives stated in the treaty text), other MEA functions have still to be explored. In fact, in spite of their potential limitations or the lack of adherence to their implementation, research has also shown that MEAs have several ancillary functions (e.g. participatory problem definition, knowledge sharing, collaboration), which might help to facilitate the transition to more sustainable societies. Examining these ancillary functions is all the more urgent now that MEAs, with their varying impacts, have become commonplace. Examining the ancillary functions attributed to MEAs will allow us to gauge effectiveness of treaties beyond the aspect of them being legally binding. This paper will, therefore, address this gap in research through a case study on the ongoing negotiations of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution. Although plastic pollution is a pressing issue because of its contribution to climate change, it has received much less attention than climate change itself, biodiversity loss, or marine litter (also linked to plastics). A case study about plastic pollution will therefore be all the more relevant. The case study will serve to identify ancillary functions and assess their role in a potential transition to a more sustainable plastics economy. To this end, the research will draw on a semi-systematic review of the literature on already identified ancillary functions of multilateral environmental agreements. It will be complemented by a case study of the ongoing negotiations on a plastic agreement from the INC on Plastic Pollution. This case study will combine observational data collected at the third session of the INC, held in Nairobi, deductively coded with Atlas.ti 23.4 and semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders of the plastics economy. This paper will improve our understanding of which ancillary functions occur during the stage of treaty making and how these contribute to a more sustainable plastics economy.