That it is the sense of the Senate that the United States must—
work towards the achievement of a new international agreement to address plastic pollution that—
protects human health and the environment; and
mitigates the risks plastic pollution has on global economic activity and public safety;
continue to play a critical leadership role in developing an ambitious international agreement that seeks to end plastic pollution consistent with United Nations Resolution 5/14;
advance outcomes and objectives in the negotiations that clearly support the economic, diplomatic, technological advantage, public health, safety, and security interests of the United States;
seek to build consensus among stakeholders, while encouraging civil society representatives, labor, scientific subject matter experts, and impacted commercial and industrial sectors to cooperate towards achieving the most ambitious agreement possible with respect to reducing plastic pollution;
help convene and facilitate, whenever appropriate, discussions within the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution to bring the international community towards a unified and comprehensive international agreement;
oppose certain parties’ efforts to delay progress towards such an agreement;
ensure that all countries realize a shared responsibility to address global plastic pollution;
consider pursuing an initial agreement that takes a “Start and Strengthen” approach to addressing plastic pollution by identifying critical policy areas for phasing down and phasing out plastic pollution, with the clear intention to strengthen and increase the ambition of the agreement over time;
work to ensure that the obligations, goals, targets, and preferred approaches described in the final agreement to reduce plastic pollution are supported by the best available science, which should also determine the scope and scale of global plastic pollution that the agreement will aim to solve;
insist that the new binding international agreement applies obligations to all parties and provides parties sufficient flexibility to determine their own policies and measures to address their contributions of plastic pollution, including microplastics, into the environment;
work to ensure that the financial mechanism has an expanded donor base that—
reflects current economic realities; and
prioritizes support for countries with limited technical and financial capacity to implement the agreement; and
prioritize the inclusion of strong transparency and accountability procedures and mechanisms that will ensure the effectiveness of actions taken by each party to the agreement.