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Nations gather in Geneva to again confront the world's spiraling plastic pollution crisis
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, AUG 11 – More than 100 countries back limits on plastic production amid opposition from oil and petrochemical producers in talks to finalize a global treaty to reduce plastic pollution.
- Delegates from 179 countries began a 10-day meeting on August 5, 2025, at UN Geneva to finalize a treaty addressing the plastic pollution crisis.
- This follow-up meeting builds on five previous sessions and a 2022 agreement by 175 nations to create a legally binding plastics treaty by the end of 2024.
- The talks focus on reducing plastic waste across its life cycle but face sharp disagreements over cutting plastic production, with oil producers opposing production limits.
- Ecuador’s Ambassador Vayas emphasized that humanity is now closer than ever to establishing an enforceable global agreement aimed at eliminating plastic pollution, while Indigenous representatives drew attention to the pollution caused by fossil fuel extraction and the use of dangerous chemicals in plastic production.
- If agreed, the treaty could curb plastic pollution damaging ecosystems and human health, but experts warn that overproduction must be addressed to achieve lasting impact.
345 Articles
345 Articles
Participants in the negotiations on plastic pollution are determined to finalize a treaty
GENEVA — Delegates, experts, and stakeholders from 184 countries and 619 organizations are determined to finalize the treaty on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. They made this clear at the opening of the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 5.2), tasked with drafting this instrument, which is being held from Aug. 5 to 14 in Geneva, Switzerland. “We are here today to fulfill a…
The first week of international discussions to arrive at a pioneering text to combat plastic pollution has just ended in Switzerland. Philippe Bolo, Member of Parliament Modem and member of the French delegation, takes stock of the blockages and hopes.
Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan | From thinking to action in the fight against plastics
In Geneva, Switzerland’s Place des Nations, the plaza outside the United Nations campus, a replica of Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Thinker, has been installed. Like the original, the seated figure holds his chin in hand, but the hand in this version also clutches several empty plastic bottles. A baby lies across his other arm, resting its head in the Thinker’s left hand. The Thinker gazes down, past the baby, onto a sea of plastic waste…
Every year, 22 million tons of plastic waste is released into the environment, poisoning soil and oceans, threatening biodiversity and human health.
“Plastics. There is a great future in plastics. Think about it, do you want to think about it?” The ironic phrase heard by a young Dustin Hoffman during a scene in the film El Graduado (1967) became a premonitory environmental tragedy. More than half a century later, delegates from 179 countries negotiate in Geneva a global treaty to stop the pollution of polymers, at an international meeting that next week enters its decisive phase. If no agree…
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