Global talks to develop a landmark treaty to tackle plastic pollution have once again failed to reach an agreement, despite efforts late into the night to strike a deal.

Delegates at a closing meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Geneva on Friday spoke of their dismay at the failure to break a deadlock at the sixth round of talks in under three years, as countries remained deeply divided over the scope of any treaty.

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“South Africa is disappointed that it was not possible for this session to agree a legally binding treaty and positions remain far apart,” its delegate told a closing meeting.

Cuba’s delegate said that negotiators had “missed a historic opportunity but we have to keep going and act urgently”, the AFP news agency reported.

“The planet, and present and future generations need this treaty.”

Landmark treaty sought

More than 1,000 delegates from at least 180 countries had gathered in the Swiss city for the latest meeting of the INC, a group established by the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022 with the mandate to develop the world’s first legally binding global treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

The negotiations in Geneva were intended to be the last round of talks that would produce a deal – although the same was said of the previous round of talks held in Busan, South Korea, late last year.

Delegates had been working to a deadline of Thursday to reach a deal, and held frantic last-minute negotiations into the early hours of Friday to try to strike common ground before talks collapsed.

Countries remain divided between those seeking significant action, such as imposing caps on producing new plastic, and those, mostly oil-producing states, who want the deal to concentrate on waste management.

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The so-called High Ambition Coalition, a large informal bloc which includes the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as many Latin American and African countries, has pushed for the treaty to introduce curbs on plastic production and the phasing out of toxic chemicals.

But a camp of oil-producing states calling itself the Like-Minded Group – including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Iran, and Malaysia – argues that the treaty should be much more limited in scope.

Luis Vayas Valdivieso, chair of the negotiating committee, wrote and presented two drafts of a treaty text, but the delegates did not agree on either as the basis for negotiations.

Anger and disappointment

France’s Ecological Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said she was “angry” and “disappointed” by the outcome, the AFP news agency reported, adding that a small number of countries “guided by short-term financial interests” had stood in the way of an important treaty.

Palau, speaking for a group of 39 small island developing states, expressed its frustration at “repeatedly returning home with insufficient progress to show our people”.

“It is unjust for [our countries] to face the brunt of yet another global environmental crisis we contribute minimally to.”

The next steps for the negotiations were not immediately clear. Vayas said on Friday as the delegates reconvened that no further action has yet been proposed on the latest draft. He banged a gavel made of recycled plastic bottle tops and said the session was adjourned, to be resumed at a later date.

Some delegates expressed interest in a seventh round of talks in the future, despite their disappointment in the outcome.

The EU said that the latest draft was a good basis for future negotiating sessions, while South Africa’s delegate insisted: “It cannot end here.”