After 30 Years, Are We Failing? COP 29 Asked the Question; SMX Provides the Answer

Audio By Carbonatix

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / September 22, 2025 / "After 30 years, the question is, are we failing? We must seize what may be our last opportunity." With that statement at COP 29 - the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference - Prime Minister Russell Dlamini of Eswatini gave voice to a reality the world can no longer ignore. The intent behind these gatherings is genuine. Leaders and negotiators arrive determined to chart a better course for humanity. But sincerity is not the same as success.

Despite nearly three decades of climate summits, plastics are still incinerated by the millions of tons, safety standards still collapse in the real world, and consumers are still left unsure whether labels can be trusted. The applause rings loudly in the conference halls, but the impact rarely follows outside them. The gap between promises and proof has remained stubbornly wide.

That is the gap SMX (NASDAQ: SMX ) is closing. While world leaders debate language and deadlines, SMX has spent years building the tools that embed proof into the supply chain itself. Its molecular markers turn recycling claims into verifiable evidence, making action measurable, enforceable, and impossible to ignore in a world where words have too often outpaced results. Even for the hardest-to-track resins.

From Blind Spots to Verified Assets

For decades, the hardest challenge in recycling wasn't ambition - it was verification. Certain plastics, especially those with carbon black and flame-retardant compounds, simply couldn't be detected by traditional systems. These "under-the-radar" plastics slipped through recycling lines and ended up in incinerators or landfills. Their invisibility left governments unable to enforce recycling targets, manufacturers exposed to liability, and consumers uncertain whether progress was real or imagined.

SMX changes that equation. By embedding molecular markers directly into materials, it makes the invisible visible. A single scan can prove whether plastics truly contain recycled content and whether fire safety chemicals are present in the correct concentrations. For the first time, policymakers, insurers, manufacturers, and consumers can see beyond the slogans and verify results at the molecular level.

The breakthrough is that these overlooked materials are no longer a liability. They become measurable assets, certified for re-entry into supply chains. What was once wasted becomes valuable, and what was once unverifiable becomes enforceable. Conferences could not close that blind spot, but technology has.

From Promises to Policy in Action

The difference between speeches and systems is already visible. In Singapore, SMX and A*STAR are building a national plastics passport platform that will allow every piece of plastic to carry its own digital identity. Regulators no longer have to rely on reports or self-declarations. They can enforce recycling policy with real-time data tied directly to the material. It is the first example of a national circularity policy backed by science instead of spreadsheets.

Europe is moving in the same direction. Through its planned partnership with REDWAVE, SMX is embedding verification into industrial sorting facilities. Plastics flowing across conveyor belts can now be checked and certified instantly. Instead of waiting months for audits, regulators and manufacturers alike have continuous, enforceable evidence of compliance. This is not another target for 2030 or 2050. It is happening in real time, today.

And in North America, SMX's proof points demonstrated in front of the North American Flame Retardant Alliance (NAFRA) bring the same enforceability to fire safety. Too many tragedies have demonstrated the cost of overstated safety claims. With SMX, compliance isn't left to datasheets; it is built into the product. Panels, wires, and appliances can all carry proof embedded at the molecular level, giving regulators, insurers, and consumers confidence that words match reality.

Proof Replaces Promises

Prime Minister Dlamini's warning was blunt: after 30 years, we may be failing. The world cannot afford another decade of declarations without delivery. Conferences can set ambition, but only technology can make that ambition enforceable.

SMX has always said its mission is to turn sustainability from a promise into proof. Today, with A*STAR, REDWAVE, and NAFRA, that mission is scaling across continents. The blind spots that global summits could not close are being solved by science that operates where the problem actually lies - inside the material itself.

The true measure of COP 29 will not be the speeches or the communiqués. It will be whether the world seizes this "last opportunity" to turn ambition into action. Proof is here. It is working. And the company delivering it is SMX.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intends," "may," "will," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company's fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company's stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX's joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of gold, steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX's strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX's ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX's ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX's ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX's product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX's business model; developments and projections relating to SMX's competitors and industry; and SMX's approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company's shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX's business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX's products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited