GENEVA — United Nations talks on a treaty to end plastic pollution collapsed in the early hours of Friday morning, as countries failed to agree on the basic parameters of the text.

The latest setback in discussions followed a ten-day summit in the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. After nearly three years of deliberations, it was meant to be the final round of negotiations after previous talks in Busan, South Korea also failed to yield a deal.

The U.N. has now hosted six rounds of talks between some 190 countries since 2022 aimed at coming up with a treaty to “end plastic pollution.” The plastics industry currently accounts for 3.4 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions and plastic production is on track to almost triple by 2060.

“Of course, we cannot hide [that] it is tragic, and it is deeply disappointing to see some countries that are trying to block an agreement,” Danish environment minister Magnus Heunicke told reporters Friday morning in reference to a group of petrostates pushing back on measures aimed at reducing the production of plastic. Denmark attended the talks in its capacity as the current president of the Council of the EU.

Nonetheless, Heunicke added, a new draft treaty text presented Friday morning was “far more ambitious than the first draft that was presented some days ago,” which “shows us that it is possible to build the bridges.”

Sticking points throughout the negotiations have included how and whether to regulate plastic products globally, how binding the measures should be, language on reducing plastic production and financial support mechanisms to implement the treaty.

Civil society groups were bitterly disappointed by the outcome. No new draft text was formally accepted, so any future talks will be based on the draft from the Busan negotiations in December.

Many are calling on countries to abandon a consensus-based approach — which seeks to bring all countries on board rather than putting the treaty to a vote — arguing that the veto power the process offers has been weaponized by countries that don’t actually want a treaty.

“What this meeting has shown is that this cannot go on like this,” said David Azoulay of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) told POLITICO. “This is pointless … If we don’t try to change the rules, we’re going to get the same result.”

At the time of writing, the chair presiding over the talks, Ecuadorian diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso had not indicated when, where or how a future round of negotiations would be held.

Chaos reigns

A turning point in the summit came when a controversial draft text released Wednesday evening was panned by the EU and several dozen countries — including France, the U.K., Colombia, Kenya, Canada, Panama and Peru. Critics saw it as a capitulation to a vocal group of oil-rich countries that have fought hard against any treaty that threatens to reduce plastic production since the talks began, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia.

The text stripped out measures around reducing plastic production and chemicals of concern in plastic products. A new version released in the early hours of Friday reintroduced some of that language, but still failed to find consensus among countries.

While the EU was ready to “move on” with the negotiations based on that “much better” version, said Heunicke, “there are some countries that are trying to block us from working on that text right now.”

His comments were echoed by Norwegian Environment Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen — whose country co-chairs the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution — blaming the talks’ failure on a “small but powerful group of countries” who also wanted to “impose severe restrictions on the possibility of developing the agreement over time. This has prevented agreement on a global agreement.”

Saudi Arabia and Iran argue that it’s the “high-ambition” countries that are playing games.

“Unfortunately, after years-long negotiation, we are witnessing that some of the wrong ideas or issues totally beyond our mandate, such as chemicals of concern, are back again into the papers,” countered Iran’s Massoud Rezvanian Rahaghi at the closing plenary.

Countries are insisting on “unrealistic elements,” he argued, and employing “unfair and restricting tactics to exclude a large number of parties in very undemocratic ways.”

Changing the game

The election of U.S. President Donald Trump and his “drill-baby-drill” ethos has brought the U.S. in line with the likes of Iran and Saudi Arabia — giving them a powerful player in their corner. The EU and other “high-ambition” countries have been hoping to bring major plastic producer China on board to counter that pushback, seeing it as a more constructive player in the talks.

Several delegates and observers noted more openness from the country on measures aimed at phasing out problematic plastic products. While China is the world’s number one consumer and producer of plastic, the country has brought in its own restrictions on the production, sale, and use of single-use plastics in a bid to stem a national pollution crisis.

“Plastic pollution is far more complex than we expected,” said Chinese representative Haijun Chen, at the closing plenary session. “It runs through the entire chain of production, consumption and recycling and waste management, as well as relates to the transition of development models of over 190 U.N. countries.”

While subtle, CIEL’s Azoulay said China’s reference to the entire plastic value chain is the “kind of move and leadership that I think is needed to create this.” Although unlikely to bring the U.S. or the Gulf countries on board, “it completely changes the dynamic for those realist countries who know that there is an opening to have a conversation with the leading producer of the world.”

In the meantime, civil society groups continue urging self-proclaimed ambitious countries to move the treaty beyond the barriers of consensus and push for a vote.

“There needs to be more effective leadership in this space where we can actually get something on the table, because our world is already dying,” said Heni Unwin, a Māori marine scientist with the Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance. “At least we didn’t sign something that isn’t going to be fully ineffective and doesn’t have global measures.”