Global leaders again failed to reach an agreement on an international plastic pollution treaty, with disagreements over key issues such as production limits and restrictions on select chemicals persisting.
After talks in Geneva collapsed Friday, the United Nations Environment Programme, which oversees the negotiations, said the negotiating committee “agreed to resume negotiations at a future date to be announced.” Any future talks would be the seventh round and the second extension after delegates failed to reach consensus by their original end-of-2024 deadline.
The U.N. gave little guidance about how talks would proceed, saying only it was a process led by member countries.
“This has been a hard-fought 10 days against the backdrop of geopolitical complexities, economic challenges, and multilateral strains,” Inger Andersen, UNEP’s executive director, said in a statement. “However, one thing remains clear: despite these complexities, all countries clearly want to remain at the table.”
