Countries push for agreement on plastic pollution pact

August 15, 2025 (MLN): Countries sought to finalise a landmark global treaty on combating plastic pollution, negotiating through the night into Friday on a last-minute revised proposal.

The new draft, issued by talks chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso after the original Thursday deadline passed, contains more than 100 unresolved passages but is seen as an “acceptable basis for negotiation” by two government sources.

Several environmental NGOs criticised the updated text, saying it still fell short of adequately protecting human health and the environment.

After three years of negotiations, nations pushing for bold action to tackle plastic waste were working to bridge differences with a bloc led by oil-producing states, as APP reported.

Valdivieso, an Ecuadoran diplomat, released the revised draft after his earlier version, issued Wednesday, was widely rejected, plunging the talks into disarray.

He spent Thursday in intense negotiations with multiple regional groups, producing a text aimed at appeasing both major camps.

The High Ambition Coalition, comprising the European Union, Britain, Canada, and many African and Latin American countries, is advocating for language on reducing plastic production and phasing out toxic chemicals in plastics.

Meanwhile, the Like-Minded Group including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Iran, and Malaysia wants the treaty to focus primarily on waste management.

Panama’s negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey said the new text “is far from what is needed to end plastic pollution,” but added it “can be the springboard to get there, if we sharpen it in a next round.”

A diplomatic source from another country also described it as an “acceptable basis for negotiation.”

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