When governments moved to restart stalled negotiations on a global plastics treaty in Geneva earlier this month, they turned to a diplomat shaped not by a single issue, but by the slow accumulation of trust, credibility, and experience across climate, oceans, and multilateral governance.
Julio Cordano, newly elected Chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, arrives at the role after years spent at the intersection of environmental ambition and geopolitical realism. His background helps explain why, at a moment of institutional fragility, governments converged around his leadership.
A Career Built in Multilateral Environmental Diplomacy
Cordano serves as Director for Environment, Climate Change and Oceans at Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a portfolio that has placed him at the center of some of the most complex negotiations in the international system. In that role, he has represented Chile across climate change, biodiversity, ocean governance, and sustainable development processes, navigating forums where scientific urgency meets political constraint.
Chile’s foreign policy over the past decade has emphasized environmental credibility paired with pragmatic diplomacy. Julio Cordano has been a key architect of that approach, helping position the country as a constructive bridge-builder in global negotiations rather than a rigid bloc actor. His work has consistently focused on finding pathways for consensus without diluting ambition, a balance that now defines the challenge facing the plastics treaty talks.
Experience Across Climate, Oceans, and the SDGs
Unlike negotiators who arrive from a single technical track, Cordano’s experience spans the interconnected systems now under strain. Climate change, ocean health, and pollution are not siloed issues in his diplomatic career, but overlapping crises requiring coordinated responses.
This systems-level perspective has shaped his reputation among peers. Plastic pollution, in particular, sits at the convergence of climate, trade, chemicals management, public health, and marine ecosystems. Cordano’s career has unfolded across each of these domains, equipping him to understand why positions have hardened and where space for compromise might still exist.
That breadth matters in a process mandated to address plastics across their full life cycle, from upstream production to downstream waste and environmental leakage. Few roles demand as much fluency across policy silos as the chairmanship of the INC.
Why Governments Turned to Julio Cordano
By the time INC-5 ended without a consolidated text and the previous chair resigned, negotiations were not just stalled. They were adrift. Procedural disputes had eclipsed substance, and trust among delegations had frayed.
Cordano’s election was less about signaling a new policy direction than about restoring confidence in the process itself. Delegates familiar with his work describe him as methodical, inclusive, and attentive to process, qualities essential in a negotiation where rules and procedure can determine whether talks advance or collapse.
His appointment also reflects a broader pattern in multilateral diplomacy: when negotiations reach an impasse, parties often turn to figures seen as steady stewards rather than agenda-setters. Cordano’s credibility lies not in grandstanding, but in his ability to keep diverse actors at the table.
Leadership at a Fragile Moment
In his remarks following the election, Julio Cordano emphasized the universality of plastic pollution and the need for cooperation, a framing consistent with his diplomatic track record. It signals continuity rather than disruption, a deliberate choice at a moment when the legitimacy of the process itself is under scrutiny.
The task ahead remains formidable. Deep disagreements persist over production limits, chemicals regulation, and the balance between binding obligations and voluntary measures. As Chair, Cordano cannot resolve those divisions alone, but he will shape how they are managed, sequenced, and negotiated.
A Test Beyond Plastics
Julio Cordano’s leadership will be measured not only by whether a treaty is concluded, but by whether the INC can reclaim relevance as a forum capable of delivering results under pressure. In that sense, his chairmanship is about more than plastic pollution. It is a test of whether multilateral environmental diplomacy can still function in an era of geopolitical fragmentation and competing economic interests.
For now, governments have placed their confidence in a diplomat whose career has been defined by navigating precisely those tensions. Whether that experience can translate procedural repair into substantive progress will determine not just the fate of the plastics treaty, but the credibility of global environmental governance itself.
RELATED STORIES:
Follow SDG News on LinkedIn
