The international coalition of governments to advocate for a global treaty to end plastic pollution, led by the Government of Catalonia, the Government of Quebec and the Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) network, has now exceeded 50 signatories from all continents around the world.

The initiative, which was born with the aim of unifying the voice of the administrations closest to citizens in the treaty negotiations and strengthening their role in the multilateral system, was presented in April by the Minister for Foreign Action and European Union, Meritxell Serret i Aleu, at an event in Ottawa (Canada), within the framework of the fourth negotiating round (INC-4) of the treaty.

In recent weeks, signatories such as the province of Imbabura (Ecuador), the Brazilian states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeirohave joined the coalition, and the cities of Chefchaouen (Morocco), Nansana (Uganda), Seongnam City (South Korea), Turku (Finland), Cape Coast (Ghana) and Medellín (Colombia).

In addition, already part of the coalition are the cities of Montreal (Canada), San José (Costa Rica), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Guimarães (Portugal); the provinces of British Columbia (Canada) and Jujuy (Argentina); the Mexican states of Jalisco and Michoacán; the Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management(ACR+), and the Mexican Association of Offices for International Affairs of States.

The global organisation United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme(UN-Habitat) and the World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF) have also lent their support from the start.

The Government of Catalonia and its 21 delegations abroad are working to further increase the number of members, while the coalition is preparing for the next negotiating session (INC-5), scheduled to take place in Busan (South Korea) in November 2024.

This is the first time that Catalonia has taken part in the negotiations of an international treaty, and it has done so actively since its inception in November 2022, advocating that the role of local and regional governments be taken into account and, at the same time, promoting a more ambitious text.

On July 3, 2024, apart from the Government of Catalonia, the Government of Quebec and the ICLEI network, the signatory governments and organizations are: