Efforts to secure the world’s first binding agreement on plastic pollution ended in frustration late Thursday, as nearly two weeks of negotiations in Geneva failed to produce a deal.

Frustration Over Stalled Talks

More than 1,000 delegates had gathered for the sixth round of UN-led negotiations, hoping to break the deadlock after last year’s failed attempt in South Korea. Instead, the session closed with no consensus, drawing weary applause as chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso of Ecuador announced that discussions would resume at a later, unspecified date.

The mood was grim. France’s ecology minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, said she was “enraged” that after days of progress and compromises, countries walked away empty-handed. Colombia’s delegate, Haendel Rodriguez, was more direct, blaming “a small number of states” — widely understood to include major oil and petrochemical producers — for blocking an outcome.

Deep Divisions on Plastic Production

At the heart of the standoff is whether the treaty should impose limits on virgin plastic production, which relies heavily on petroleum, coal, and gas. The European Union and small island nations pushed hard for caps, arguing that cutting production is the only way to address what has become one of the planet’s most pervasive forms of pollution.

But petrochemical-exporting countries, along with the United States under the Trump administration, resisted. Observers noted that without production limits, the treaty risks becoming a recycling-only framework — something environmental advocates say would barely scratch the surface of the crisis.

US negotiator John Thompson declined to speak to the press as he left the venue.

A Process in Question

Some countries, including the UK, urged patience and insisted that talks must continue. Others, like South Africa, suggested the negotiations were fundamentally broken. “It is very clear that the current process will not work,” their delegate said.

Denmark’s environment minister Magnus Heunicke, representing the EU bloc, called the outcome “tragic and deeply disappointing,” but vowed that European nations would continue to push for an ambitious treaty.

UN Environment Programme head Inger Andersen struck a cautious note of optimism, saying that while “we did not get where we want,” there remains political will to keep pushing toward an agreement.

Campaigners: Better No Deal Than a Weak One

Civil society groups were equally frustrated but warned against rushing into a watered-down treaty. Ana Rocha of GAIA, a global alliance of anti-plastics organizations, said the failure was preferable to adopting a weak agreement that lacked production limits: “No treaty is better than a bad treaty.”

What Comes Next

The Geneva outcome underscores just how contentious plastic regulation has become, with powerful economic interests clashing with environmental imperatives. For now, the path forward remains uncertain. More talks will be scheduled, but without compromise on production caps and financing for developing countries, the world’s first plastics treaty risks stalling indefinitely.