'Plastic pollution treaty stalled as Geneva talks end without deal’ 15 August 2025

Delegates discussing the world's first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution failed to reach consensus, diplomats said on Friday, voicing disappointment and even rage that the 10-day talks produced no deal. Delegates had been seeking a breakthrough in the deadlocked United Nations' talks in Geneva, but states pushing for an ambitious treaty said that the latest text released overnight failed to meet their expectations. The chair of the negotiations Ecuador's Luis Vayas Valdivieso adjourned the session with a pledge to resume talks at an undetermined later date, drawing weak applause from exhausted delegates who had worked into the early hours.

…Diplomats and climate advocates had warned earlier this month that efforts by the European Union and small island states to cap virgin plastic production - fuelled by petroleum, coal and gas - faced opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the U.S. under President Donald Trump. U.S. delegate John Thompson from the State Department declined to comment as he left the talks. The path forward for the negotiations is uncertain…Negotiations had gone into overtime on Thursday as countries scrambled to bridge deep divisions over the extent of future curbs. Many, including Danish environment minister Magnus Heunicke, who negotiated on behalf of the EU, were disappointed that the final push did not yield any results.

"Of course, we cannot hide that it is tragic and deeply disappointing to see some countries trying to block an agreement," he told reporters while vowing to keep working on the treaty necessary to tackle "one of the biggest pollution problems we have on earth." Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, also pledged to continue work. "We did not get where we want but people want a deal," she said. The most divisive issues include capping production, managing plastic products and chemicals of concern, and financing to help developing countries implement the treaty. Anti-plastics campaigners voiced disappointment at the outcome but welcomed states' rejection of 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 environmental group GAIA.