UN plastic pollution talks fail again with negotiators rejecting draft treaties

The Herald Scotland

4 days ago

But the INC5.2 talks ended in overtime on Friday morning without a deal after negotiators struggled to break a deadlock over key issues.
'We did not get where we wanted, but people want a deal. This work will not stop, because plastic pollution will not stop.'
UNEP Executive Director @andersen_inger at the close of the second part of #INC5 in Geneva.
Watch the full media stakeout: https://t.co/rpSs6tao6T… pic.twitter.com/Ik1OGpIh0Y
— UN Environment Programme (@UNEP) August 15, 2025
The biggest sticking point has been whether the treaty should impose caps on producing new plastic or focus instead on things such as better design, recycling and reuse.
Over the past few days, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the chair of the negotiating committee, gathered views from the representatives of 184 countries before writing two drafts of treaty text.
But countries ultimately rejected both as the basis for negotiations after they failed to bridge major rifts between different groups of countries.
The so-called 'high ambition coalition', including the UK, have been calling for binding obligations on reducing production and consumption, sustainable product design, environmentally sound management of plastic waste and clean-up of pollution.
But a smaller number of powerful oil and gas producing nations including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait oppose production limits, which they consider outside the scope of the treaty.
The key sticking point was whether a treaty should impose limits on plastic production (Jonathan Pow/PA)
Environment campaigners and a coalition of businesses praised the high ambition countries for holding the line for a strong deal and said no treaty was better than a weak one but warned of the urgency to tackle the growing crisis.
Every year, the world makes more than 400 million tonnes of new plastic, and that could grow by about 70% by 2040 without policy changes. About 100 countries want to limit production.
Many have said it is also essential to address toxic chemicals used to make plastics.
Once in the environment, plastic waste can entangle, choke or be eaten by wildlife and livestock, clog up waterways and litter beaches, while bigger items break down into microplastics, entering food chains.
And producing plastic, primarily from fossil fuel oil, has a climate impact, with the World in Data and OECD saying 3.3% of global emissions is down to the production and management of global plastics.
The best way to manage waste is to generate less or none in the first place.
It's time to act! Let's ban single-use plastic & #SaveOurOcean 🌊 pic.twitter.com/hQskAroXH3
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) August 14, 2025
Since talks began in 2022, countries have taken part in several rounds of negotiations to reach consensus on tackling the issue.
The Geneva talks were arranged after what was originally meant to be the final round of talks in Busan, South Korea, also ended without an agreement in November.
It is understood that another round of negotiations will be organised when the location and money for it is found.
The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which represents 200 companies including Nestle, PepsiCo Walmart, Tetra Pak and Unilever, said it was 'disappointed' by the lack of an agreement, but said there is 'cause for optimism'.
Rebecca Marmot, chief sustainability and corporate affairs officer at Unilever, said: 'The strong alignment among governments, business and civil society groups calling for a treaty with harmonised regulations across the full lifecycle of plastics is encouraging.
Campaigners have stressed the harm that can be caused by plastic pollution (Jacob King/PA)
'Harmonised regulations are essential to reduce business complexity and cost, whilst also increasing confidence to invest in solutions.'
Jodie Roussell, global public affairs lead for packaging and sustainability at Nestle, said: 'Voluntary efforts are not enough, and the current fragmented regulatory landscape results in increased costs and complexity for business.'
Graham Forbes, Greenpeace's head of delegation at the talks, said: 'The inability to reach an agreement in Geneva must be a wake-up call for the world: ending plastic pollution means confronting fossil fuel interests head-on.
'The vast majority of governments want a strong agreement, yet a handful of bad actors were allowed to use process to drive such ambition into the ground.
'We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. The time for hesitation is over.'
Christina Dixon, Ocean Campaign at the Environmental Investigation Agency, said: 'The supposedly final round of negotiations for a new global plastics treaty exposed deep geopolitical divides and a troubling resistance to confronting the real drivers of plastic pollution.
'No deal is better than a toothless treaty that locks us into further inaction, but without urgent course correction, efforts to secure a plastics treaty risks becoming a shield for polluters, not a solution to the plastics crisis.'
Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet at the Plastic Health Council: 'The high ambition coalition and civil society built extraordinary solidarity over these negotiations — a unity that transcended traditional boundaries.
'The fact that this could not overcome a process so fundamentally compromised by the narrow interests of the tiny fraction reaping massive financial rewards reveals the urgent need to reform how we make planetary decisions.'