Global divide widens over plastic cuts as treaty talks hit deadlock
On the final day, negotiators cut about 1,500 brackets from the draft text but also removed several key proposals backed by over 100 nations. These include a ban on problematic plastics, restrictions on hazardous chemicals, and measures to curb virgin plastic production.Other provisions—such as recognising Indigenous knowledge, addressing human health impacts, and ensuring a just transition—were also dropped.While like-minded countries (LMCs) hailed the draft as a 'milestone,' the coalition of 100 nations pushing for plastic production cuts called it 'imbalanced.' They wanted the treaty to address the entire life cycle of plastics, including manufacturing, banning toxic chemicals, and listing products for phase-out. India, siding with LMCs, called for a balanced approach that would not hinder trade. Naresh Pal Gangwar, Joint Secretary of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and head of India's delegation, said:'We have some serious concerns about the text proposed by you, as we see many fundamental elements (scope) missing from the text. Having said this, we consider this as a good enough starting point to further our work We also urge other member states to have trust in your leadership and express their concern during the consultation process.'If current trends continue, plastic production is set to triple by 2060. Focusing solely on managing plastic waste, without cutting production, will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions—plastics already account for 3.4% of global emissions.Without addressing the harmful health impacts of plastic manufacturing, the treaty risks going in circles, while plastics continue to accumulate in oceans, air, land, and even human bloodstreams.- EndsMust Watch
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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Crucial negotiations to arrive at a global treaty to end plastic pollution collapse as countries remain divided in Geneva
Plastic items are displayed at an artwork by Canadian artist and activist Benjamin Von Wong, titled "The Thinker's Burden", during the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva. NEW DELHI: The UN-led crucial negotiation in Geneva aimed at coming out with a legally binding global treaty to end plastic pollution ended without an agreement on Friday as countries failed to arrive at a consensus on ways to tackle the menace. Negotiators from 185 countries, including India, discussed the issue for 10 days but could not find a common ground as major petrochemical-producing countries refused caps on virgin plastic production and control on certain chemicals. India is learnt to have aligned with like-minded developing countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council comprising Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar who refused any global phase-out list or trade restrictions on plastic products. India has always been pitched for a "consensus-based decision-making" to reach an agreement that should focus on aspects related to "plastic pollution only" without affecting the right to sustainable development of developing countries. "Production caps and controls on toxics and chemicals of concern are India's redlines," Dharmesh Shah, public policy analyst, who had been tracking the negotiations, told TOI when asked about India's stand. The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) had in 2022 adopted a resolution to create a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution and mandated the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to convene a meeting of the UN's International Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop such an instrument. Since 2022, the INC had met five times but could not come out with a desired result. With the meeting (INC-5.2) in Geneva too ending without result, the Committee now agreed to resume negotiations at a future date. 'While we did not land the treaty text we hoped for, we at UNEP will continue the work against plastic pollution – pollution that is in our groundwater, in our soil, in our rivers, in our oceans and yes, in our bodies,' said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UNEP. The goal of INC-5.2 was to agree on the instrument's text and highlight unresolved issues requiring further preparatory work ahead of a diplomatic conference. The discussions during the 10-day of negotiation revolved around key areas like plastic design, chemicals of concern, production caps, finance, and compliance. Shah said the progress has been held back by a small group of countries whose insistence on "consensus-only decision-making" has given the least ambitious voices the power to block measures supported by the majority, from production caps to controls on toxic chemicals. "This approach has delayed urgent action and weakened the treaty's potential to protect health and human rights. Countries with the capacity and influence to lead, including India, have a choice: step up with ambition and help deliver a treaty that meets the scale of the crisis, or risk being remembered for defending the status quo while the world calls for change," he said. Experts believe that a legally binding global treaty is vital to save the earth as currently more than 460 million metric tonnes of plastic are produced globally every single year of which an estimated 20 million tonnes end up polluting the environment by affecting land, freshwater and marine habitats. The situation will gradually become more serious as the global plastic waste is expected to reach 1.7 billion metric tons by 2060.
Economic Times
3 hours ago
- Economic Times
World plastic pollution treaty talks collapse with no deal
Synopsis Global talks in Geneva to create a treaty addressing plastic pollution collapsed. Nations could not agree on key issues. Some countries wanted to curb plastic production. Others preferred focusing on waste management. The failure disappointed many nations. They expressed desires to continue negotiations. Environmental groups criticized the process. They warned of continued environmental damage. AP Plastic items are displayed at an artwork by Canadian artist and activist Benjamin Von Wong, titled "The Thinker's Burden", during the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. Talks aimed at striking a landmark global treaty on plastic pollution fell apart Friday as countries failed to find consensus on how the world should tackle the ever-growing from 185 nations worked beyond Thursday's deadline and through the night in an ultimately futile search for common ground.A large bloc wants bold action such as curbing plastic production, while a smaller clutch of oil-producing states want to focus more narrowly on waste stalemate was a resounding failure for the environment and for international diplomacy at a time when its frailties are in the voiced anger and despair as the talks unravelled, but said they wanted future negotiations -- despite six rounds of talks over three years now having failed to find agreement. "We have missed a historic opportunity but we have to keep going and act urgently," said added: "The negotiations were consistently blocked by a small number of states who simply don't want an agreement."Tuvalu, speaking for 14 Pacific small island developing states, said: "For our islands this means that without global cooperation and state action, millions of tonnes of plastic waste will continue to be dumped in our oceans, affecting our ecosystem, food security, livelihood and culture."The High Ambition Coalition, which includes the European Union, Britain and Canada, and many African and Latin American countries, wanted to see language on reducing plastic production and the phasing out of toxic chemicals used in cluster of mostly oil-producing states calling themselves the Like-Minded Group -- including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Iran, and Malaysia -- want a much narrower countries railed against the negotiations being based on the entire life-cycle of plastic: from the petroleum-derived substance right through to waste."Our views were not reflected... without an agreed scope, this process cannot remain on the right track," said said it wanted a treaty that "does not penalise developing countries for exploiting their own resources".France's Ecological Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said: "I am disappointed, and I am angry," blaming a handful of countries, "guided by short-term financial interests", for blocking an ambitious treaty. "Oil-producing countries and their allies have chosen to look the other way," she said. The talks in Geneva -- called after the collapse of the fifth and supposedly final round of talks in South Korea late last year -- opened on August countries far apart, Vayas produced two different draft texts on Wednesday and early Friday. The first was immediately shredded by countries, but while the second gained some traction, by sunrise, the game was chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso said the session had merely been adjourned rather than told AFP that countries and the secretariat "will be working to try to find a date and also a place" for resuming the negotiations were hosted by the UN Environment chief Inger Andersen told AFP that the Geneva talks had fleshed out the deeper details of where countries' red lines were. "They've exchanged on these red lines amongst one another -- that's a very important step," she environmental NGOs warned that without radically changing the process to better reflect the majority view, future talks would hit the same dead end -- while plastic garbage would continue choking the Center for International Environmental Law's David Azoulay said the talks had been an "abject failure" because some countries were out to "block any attempt at advancing a viable treaty"."We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result," said Greenpeace's delegation head Graham Forbes, blaming "fossil fuel interests" and "a handful of bad actors" for exploiting the consensus-based process to skewer meaningful World Wide Fund for Nature said the talks exposed how consensus decision-making "had now "outplayed its role in international environmental negotiations". More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use 15 percent of plastic waste is collected for recycling, only nine percent is actually half, or 46 percent, ends up in landfills, while 17 percent is incinerated and 22 percent is mismanaged and becomes litter. The plastic pollution problem is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks, in the deepest ocean trench and scattered throughout almost every part of the human body. On current trends, annual production of fossil-fuel-based plastics will nearly triple by 2060 to 1.2 billion tonnes, while waste will exceed one billion tonnes, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
News18
10 hours ago
- News18
Talks for treaty on plastic pollution end without agreement
Agency: New Delhi, Aug 15 (PTI) Countries on Friday failed to reach an agreement during the fifth round of international talks in Geneva that could have led to the first-ever global treaty to curb plastic pollution. Governments negotiating the treaty were presented with a new draft on Thursday that omitted binding limits on plastic production, a gap that drew sharp criticism from many nations. Negotiators from 185 countries spent the night at the UN headquarters in the Swiss city, trying to find common ground between those calling for bold action, such as curbing plastic production, and fossil fuel-producing states that want any treaty to focus on recycling, waste management and voluntary commitments. However, the talks, which began on August 5, ended without an agreement, despite running into overtime. The fifth round of negotiations on the plastics treaty (INC-5.2) in Geneva was part of efforts launched in 2022 to address what the United Nations calls a 'plastic pollution crisis" that threatens oceans, wildlife, human health and the climate. Scientists estimate that more than 430 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year, much of it in the form of short-lived products that become waste within months. Around 11 million tonnes enter the ocean annually. The INC talks were seen as the most ambitious global effort yet to address plastic pollution in a comprehensive manner. The process aimed to tackle the issue from the extraction of raw materials through manufacturing, use and disposal, an approach that campaigners say is essential to prevent further environmental and health harm. However, deep divisions had emerged. A coalition of more than 60 'high-ambition" countries, including many from Africa, the Pacific and Europe, pushed for binding global measures to cap production, phase out problematic plastics and eliminate hazardous chemicals. On the other side, major oil and petrochemical producers, along with some manufacturing nations, resisted limits on production and preferred nationally-determined actions focussed on recycling, waste management and voluntary commitments. PTI GVS RC view comments First Published: August 15, 2025, 14:30 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
