Delegates at a UN conference in Geneva failed to reach a consensus on a legally binding treaty to combat plastic pollution, with the 10-day talks ending without a deal. Diplomats expressed frustration and even rage over the lack of a breakthrough.
Participants had hoped to advance the deadlocked negotiations, but countries pushing for an ambitious treaty said the latest draft text did not meet their expectations. The chair of the talks, Ecuador’s Luis Vayas Valdivieso, adjourned the session, promising to resume negotiations at a later, unspecified date.
French ecology minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher voiced her anger at the closing session. “I am enraged because despite genuine efforts by many, and real progress in discussions, no tangible results have been obtained,” she said.
Colombia’s delegate, Haendel Rodriguez, pointedly stated that a deal was “blocked by a small number of states who simply did not want an agreement,” in what appeared to be a reference to oil-producing nations.
Diplomats and climate advocates had previously warned that efforts by the European Union and small island states to cap virgin plastic production were facing opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the United States under President Donald Trump. US delegate John Thompson from the State Department declined to comment as he left the talks.
The path forward for the negotiations remains uncertain. While UN officials and countries like Britain called for talks to resume, others described the process as broken. A delegate from South Africa stated, “It is very clear that the current process will not work.”
This was the sixth round of talks for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), after a meeting in South Korea last year also ended without a deal. Negotiations went into overtime on Thursday as countries tried to bridge deep divisions over the scope of future restrictions.
Danish environment minister Magnus Heunicke, who negotiated on behalf of the EU, was disappointed that the final push yielded no results. He told reporters it was “tragic and deeply disappointing to see some countries trying to block an agreement,” but vowed to continue working on a treaty to tackle “one of the biggest pollution problems we have on earth.”
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, also pledged to continue the work, stating, “We did not get where we want but people want a deal.”
The most divisive issues in the talks included capping production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and providing financial support to help developing countries implement the treaty.
Anti-plastics campaigners expressed disappointment with the outcome but welcomed the decision to reject a weak deal that failed to place limits on plastics production. “No treaty is better than a bad treaty,” said Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director from the environmental group GAIA.
