Fresh breakthrough yet still stalled at plastic pollution negotiations

Global Plastic Puzzle: Geneva Negotiators Extend Deadline for Third‑Round Treaty

Geneva, Switzerland — Three years of negotiation, 185 participating nations, and an urgent global crisis pushed delegates to shuffle desks and draft fresh text as talks on a worldwide plastic‑pollution treaty were extended an extra day.

New Draft: A “Middle Ground” Draft, Still Missing Ambition

• Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso released a revised draft after the original Thursday version was shredded by all corners of the UN‑high‑ambition coalition and oil‑making states.
• The updated draft contains more than 100 unresolved passages of text, but two sources from different governments called it an “acceptable basis for negotiation.”
• Environmental NGOs warned the draft still fell short of protecting human health and the environment.

High‑Ambition Coalition vs. Like‑Minded Group

High‑Ambition Coalition (EU, UK, Canada, many African and Latin American countries) wants language on reducing plastic production and phasing out toxic chemicals used in plastics.

Like‑Minded Group (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Iran, Malaysia) insists the treaty focus on waste management.

Panama’s negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey said the draft marked a “springboard to get there, if we sharpen it in a next round.” A diplomatic source from another country echoed that it was an “acceptable basis for negotiation.”

Who Says the Draft Is “Far From Enough”?

• IPEN, a global network to limit toxic chemicals, said the draft ambition “cannot become the new normal for these negotiations.”
• World Wide Fund for Nature remarked the text “so compromised, so inconsequential, it cannot hope to tackle the crisis in any meaningful way.”

Next Steps: “Middle Ground” and “Coherent Global Treaty”

Kenya’s Environment Minister Deborah Barasa of the High‑Ambition Coalition urged all states in Geneva to adopt a treaty that “truly meets the scale of this environmental and public health emergency.” She added, “We can’t do it on our own.”

French President Emmanuel Macron blasted the need for action, asking, “What are we waiting for to act?”

Common theme: delegates aim to print a treaty now, then fine‑tune details later. “We need to come to a middle ground,” Barasa said.

Bottom line: The Geneva process delivered a fresh draft that some say is “acceptable,” but environmental experts stress it still lacks the courage to end the plastic‑pollution crisis.