Geneva, 12 August 2025
As the final week of the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty negotiations (INC5.2) begins in Geneva, Australian filmmaker and environmental advocate April Howard hopes first-hand stories from the Pacific support the negotiators who are on the front line in this fight to put people over plastic.
Howard, co-director of the upcoming documentary Voices of the Pacific, has spent the last year travelling to some of the most remote and impacted regions in the Pacific, capturing the devastating consequences of plastic pollution on communities, cultures, and ecosystems.
One of her most confronting experiences came while visiting a remote North Pacific island. After marvelling at a dawn gathering of thirty green sea turtles grazing in the shallows, Howard was taken to the island’s northern shore by her new friend Lazarus, a former ranger from Palau. There, she was confronted with mountains of plastic debris: bottles, caps, fishing ropes, and discarded thongs carried thousands of kilometres by ocean currents.
“Pacific Island nations produce only a tiny fraction of the world’s plastic, yet they are drowning in it,” Howard said. “Lazarus has turned the waste into haunting installations, not as art for art’s sake, but as a desperate cry for help. There’s nowhere to store it, nowhere to send it. It just keeps coming.”
While countries like Fiji have led calls for a treaty addressing the entire life cycle of plastics, Howard says her mission in Geneva and beyond is to share what she has seen, to help people everywhere grasp the scale of the crisis, and to encourage both government and individual action. “I have gained insight that people feel powerless, but we’re not. Every choice, every email, every conversation adds up and supports our Pacific brothers and sisters and ourselves."
“In the negotiating rooms there are two sides,” she said. “One is working to protect oceans, wildlife, and people for all eight point one billion of us. The other is resisting change to protect profits, even as plastic infiltrates our food, water, and air.”
Scientific research has linked plastics and the sixteen thousand chemicals they contain to serious health risks including cancer, endocrine disruption, and fertility issues. Microplastics are now found everywhere, from ice caps to the deepest ocean trenches, and even in human bloodstreams.
Howard hopes her film and her presence in Geneva will help galvanise people to lobby their governments for stronger measures, while also reflecting on their own plastic footprint.
“This isn’t just a Pacific problem. It’s all of ours,” she said. “Every piece of plastic we use has an impact somewhere. If we all start making changes at home, in our communities, and by pushing for real political action we can turn the tide.”
Howard is available for media interviews from Geneva in the lead-up to the conclusion of the INC5.2 negotiations. She can share stories from affected communities in the Pacific Islands where she has previously filmed and practical ways individuals can reduce their own plastic impact.
Contact details:
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Australia – Delia Bell +61 400 283 289 | [email protected]
Switzerland – April Howard +61 438 529 348 | [email protected]