The Cook Islands has reinforced the priorities of the Cook Islands during the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution and Friends Negotiator Workshop held in Copenhagen from 2 to 4 September 2026.
The Cook Islands was represented by Halatoa Fua, Director of the National Environment Service. The workshop brought together negotiators and partners to identify priorities and possible pathways towards a fair, effective, balanced and ambitious international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.
Across the three-day workshop, the Cook Islands advocated for a treaty that addresses plastic pollution across its full life cycle. Priorities included global measures on problematic plastic products and chemicals of concern, safer product design, prevention of releases and leakages, waste prevention and environmentally sound management, transparent reporting and a mechanism for strengthening implementation over time.
Director Fua emphasised that the treaty must respond to the realities of island States, which contribute comparatively little to global plastic production but face disproportionate impacts from imported products, transboundary marine pollution, limited waste infrastructure and high transport costs.
“For the Cook Islands, an effective treaty must reduce the plastic pollution reaching our shores and ocean while remaining practical for small island administrations to implement. Global rules are essential because our market is too small to influence how products are designed, what chemicals they contain or how producers manage them at end of life,” Mr Fua said.
The Cook Islands also called for a financial mechanism that provides adequate, predictable and accessible support. This includes simplified access for SIDS, grant-based finance, capacity-building, technology transfer and recognition of regional solutions for collection, transport, recycling and environmentally sound disposal.
The workshop also considered how the future Conference of the Parties should take decisions and strengthen the treaty over time. The Cook Islands supports consensus as the preferred approach, while retaining a last-resort voting pathway so that implementation cannot be permanently blocked when all efforts to reach consensus have been exhausted.
The Copenhagen workshop will inform further Cook Islands coordination with Pacific SIDS and HAC partners ahead of the next informal Heads of Delegation meeting in Bangkok and the resumed negotiations at INC-5.4.
