Negotiations on plastic pollution have failed – Swiss Catholic portal

The 183 countries gathered in Geneva failed to agree, on the night of August 14 to 15, 2025, on a binding text to fight against plastic pollution that will stimulate. “We will not have a plastic pollution treaty here in Geneva,” said the representative of Norway during a plenary session this Friday.

Theoretically, the CNI5-2 negotiation sequence, which started in Geneva on August 5, was to stop at midnight on August 14.

A little earlier, India and Uruguay underlined the incapacity of the negotiators “to find a consensus”, details RTS Info. Presented in the middle of the night from Thursday to Friday a new compromise text included even more than a hundred points to be clarified, after ten days of intense negotiations. But the managers of delegation gathered in informal session did not manage to agree.

No horizon for the rest of the negotiations

The future of negotiations was not clear immediately. Uganda has requested a new negotiation session on a later date and the European environment commissioner, Jessika Roswall considered that Geneva had made it possible to establish “a good base” for a takeover of the negotiations.

The Ecuadorian diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso, who already presided over negotiations during the failure of the previous diplomatic sequence in South Korea in Busan at the end of 2024, should give a brief press conference, according to UN services. His method and the negotiation process were severely criticized throughout the Diplomatic Sequence in Geneva, but often anonymously.

The “disappointment” of the Swiss delegation

Switzerland will therefore not have its Geneva agreement against plastic pollution. Friday morning in front of the other states, its chief negotiator Felix Wertli relayed the “disappointment” of his delegation. And he asked for a “break” to think about the continuation of the negotiations. “It’s a difficult time,” admitted the chief of international affairs of the Federal Environment Office (OFEF). “We have obtained advances,” he adds. “But it lacked the significant stages which were required” for a treaty that could work against plastic pollution, according to him.

Greenpeace denounces the petrochemical industry

“The inability to reach an agreement in Geneva must be an alarm signal for the whole world: putting an end to plastic pollution means tackling the interests of fossil fuels. The vast majority of governments want a strong agreement, but a handful of ill -intentioned actors have been authorized to use the process to reduce this ambition, “deplores Joëlle Hérin, consumer expert and circular economy at Greenpeace Switzerland.

It castigates the attitude of representatives of the oil industry during negotiations: “The plastic crisis is accelerating and the petrochemical industry is determined to sacrifice us for the benefit of their short -term interests. Now is not the time to retreat. It’s time to be courageous, determined and persevering. ” (cath.ch/ag/bh)