Geneva talks fail to seal plastics treaty over production caps

Geneva – After more than a week of intense negotiations, negotiators failed to clinch a binding global treaty to curb plastic pollution, leaving the world closer to continuing a cycle of production, waste and environmental harm. The discussions ran late into Friday, but a consensus on key ambitions—especially limits on virgin plastic production—remained out of reach, underscoring the deep rift between countries pushing for a full lifecycle, production-reducing approach and a smaller bloc favoring waste-management and voluntary measures.

At the heart of the dispute is whether the treaty should cap plastic production derived from fossil fuels. A large coalition of nations argues that without production caps, the treaty will be ineffective in stemming the growth of plastic pollution and its health and ecological impacts. Oil-producing states and their allies maintain that the agreement should center on better waste management, recycling and design, not on restricting production. This fundamental disagreement led to the chair presenting a compromise draft earlier in the week that many countries criticized for stripping out ambitious targets, including provisions on production...