UN talks in Geneva end without agreement on addressing plastic pollution

Failure of Global Negotiations on Plastic Pollution Treaty

The 185 countries gathered in Geneva were unable to reach an agreement on combating plastic pollution, as reported by several delegations at the UN talks. With key divisions remaining, the future of the negotiations remains uncertain, reports 24brussels.

Disparities in positions had become apparent in preceding days. A draft treaty, stripped of most binding commitments, faced rejection from dozens of nations. An amended proposal also failed to gain unanimous support by Friday morning, after ten days of intense discussions, leaving over a hundred points unresolved.

“We need to be honest: this is a failure,” stated Jean-Luc Crucke, the federal minister of climate and ecological transition, representing Belgium at the summit. “We had to find a consensus, and we did not succeed.”

Florian Tize of the environmental organization WWF remarked, “In this case, no agreement is better than a deal that entrenches the status quo at the UN level without a real solution to the plastic crisis.”

The Geneva conference aimed to establish a legally binding treaty addressing the entire lifecycle of plastic, from production and design to waste processing, which began three years ago.

Although participating nations concur on the necessity to address plastic waste, significant disagreements persist regarding solutions. The European Union, along with over a hundred countries from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific, advocates for limiting plastic production sustainably, eliminating single-use packaging, and transitioning towards reusable products, recycling, and a circular economy.

Conversely, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russia, which are significant producers of oil—the primary raw material for plastic—seek to shift focus towards effective waste management.

^{Artwork by Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong created for the UN summit on plastic pollution in Geneva © PHOTO Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP}