Geneva: Plastic pollution treaty talks end in deadlock

High level negotiations between 185 countries over reaching a global agreement to combat plastic pollution ended on Friday, as rival blocs clashed over prioritising a phase out of the material or bettering waste management systems.

“We will not have a treaty to end plastic pollution here in Geneva,” Norway’s

negotiator said as country representatives took the floor following talks that went through the night.

India and Uruguay said no consensus had been reached on the proposal, with Cuba adding: “We have missed a historic opportunity.”

Talks on striking a global treaty on combating plastic pollution were extended an extra day into Friday but with no clear endgame in sight.

Ten days of negotiations at the United Nations in Geneva were due to wrap up on Thursday but with 23 minutes of the day left, the talks were prolonged.

However, after a day of frantic negotiations, there were few signs that rival country blocs were any closer to bridging their differences and striking a text on dealing with the scourge of plastic that pollutes land, oceans and people’s bodies.

“As consultations of my revised draft text are still ongoing, this plenary is therefore adjourned, to be convened on August 15, 2025, at a time to be announced,” talks chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso said before gavelling the session closed.

The plenary session — bringing all 185 negotiating countries together in the UN Palais des Nations’ main assembly hall — lasted less than a minute, with shocked reactions among the delegates packing the room.

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.

With 15 million tonnes of plastic dumped in the ocean every minute, French President Emmanuel Macron asked: “What are we waiting for to act?”

“I urge all states gathered in Geneva to adopt an agreement that truly meets the scale of this environmental and public health emergency,” he posted on X.

FRANCE24