News
No pact over plastic- oil and gas goliaths won’t have caps on global production
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe
Global talks to reach a treaty aimed at ending the growing scourge of plastic pollution collapsed in Geneva on Friday, with no agreement reached and no clear path forward.
Countries worked beyond Thursday’s deadline into the night and Friday morning, but remained deadlocked on the issue that has dogged negotiations since they were launched, amid fervent optimism, in 2022: whether to reduce the exponential growth of plastic production and place global, legally binding controls on toxic chemicals used to make plastics.
Several countries expressed disappointment and anger that after the sixth and final round of negotiations, the summit had failed to produce a deal. Delegates said discussions would resume at a later date, though with no timeline set.
The summit, held at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva and attended by delegates from more than 180 countries, was supposed to conclude on Thursday after 10 days of negotiations. But it slipped into overtime as divisions persisted over whether to tackle plastics at their source or focus on downstream measures such as recycling.
More than 100 countries have called for legally binding caps on plastic production and restrictions on toxic chemicals. However, powerful oil and gas producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, pushed back strongly, insisting the treaty should focus instead on recycling, reuse and redesign rather than production caps or a phase-out of chemicals.
In the early hours of Friday, the chair of the negotiating committee presented a draft of the treaty, but delegates failed to agree to use it as a basis for further discussions, leaving no path forward. The committee has said negotiations will continue, but uncertainties remain about when and in what form.
The Geneva meeting marked the sixth round of discussions since 2022, when countries first agreed to negotiate a legally binding treaty to cover the full lifecycle of plastics — from manufacture to disposal. The process was expected to conclude in South Korea in December, but talks collapsed largely over the issue of production cuts.
Despite broad consensus on the need to tackle the plastics crisis, deep divisions remain over how to do so. The main contention has been whether the treaty should impose limits on the production of new plastics. Petrochemical-producing nations and companies argue plastics are vital to their economies and bottom lines, especially as the world transitions away from fossil fuels. They also point to the indispensable role plastics play in society — from medical instruments to food packaging — and have urged that the focus remain on waste management rather than production.
Kasumi Ranasinghe Arachchige, Co-Director of the Biodiversity Project, said the outcome of the Geneva round reflected how the process had been undermined by industry influence. “The plastics treaty negotiations that began three years ago have increasingly mirrored the dynamics of climate COPs, where fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists continue to infiltrate and dominate the process,” she told the Sunday Times.
She explained that the treaty was intended to create “a more livable planet by addressing plastic production and consumption across the entire chain, from manufacturers to distributors and retailers, while protecting the communities most affected.” But according to her, the process has been “skewed by industry influence.”
“This year alone, 234 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists participated, compared to just 60 representatives from the scientific coalition and 36 Indigenous voices,” she said, highlighting a four-to-one and seven-to-one imbalance.
An investigation by the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL) has tracked the rising number of fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists registered to participate in the plastics treaty talks, culminating in 234 lobbyists at INC-5.2. These estimates are likely conservative, as only those who openly disclosed their connections were counted.
Ms. Ranasinghe argued the failure in Geneva was “not merely a lack of political will but a deeply flawed process, where majority positions are systematically blocked and key provisions, including those aimed at ending plastic pollution, were erased at the last minute but were rejected by the other member states.”
She stressed that Sri Lanka, already bearing the costs of plastic-related disasters such as the MV X-Press Pearl and MSC Elisa-03 shipwrecks, must take stronger positions in future negotiations. Prevention, she said, “cannot be achieved without tackling production at its root.”
“There’s so much mismanaged plastic, and as a country affected by transboundary plastic pollution, the absence of stronger global frameworks means countries such as ours continue to be hit by waste, both at the end of its cycle and before-product pollution,” she added. “This leaves us with weaker protections against such consequences and even a depleted justice system.”
Communities across rural and coastal areas are already grappling with health risks and toxic exposure from plastic waste mismanagement, she noted. Unless global talks prioritise science, indigenous knowledge, and the lived realities of affected nations, Ms. Ranasinghe warned, “the treaty will remain another exercise in pacification rather than prevention.”
Sri Lanka has faced some of the world’s worst plastic-related disasters, including the 2021 MV X-Press Pearl incident, where over 1,600 tonnes of nurdles were spilt into the sea off Colombo in what has been described as the largest marine plastic spill on record. While the Supreme Court later ordered USD 1 billion in compensation, recovery and litigation remain ongoing. More recently, the 2024 MSC Elisa-3 shipwreck further polluted coastal areas, leaving stretches of shoreline blanketed with plastic pellets and devastating fishing communities. Coastal regions spanning 80 to 600 kilometres have reported severe disruptions to livelihoods and ecosystems. Beyond these disasters, Sri Lanka continues to be heavily affected by transboundary and locally mismanaged plastic waste, compounding health and environmental risks.
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