Plastic pollution talks go into overtime as countries push for late breakthrough

By Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -Talks to create the world's first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution went into overtime on Thursday, with talks adjourned to the following day.

Countries scrambled to bridge deep divisions over the extent of future curbs on what was meant to be the final day of negotiations at the United Nations in Geneva.

But with just 30 minutes left in the scheduled meeting, the chair of the talks of the International Negotiating Committee (INC), Luis Vayas Valdivieso, told delegates the negotiations would run into Friday.

The INC is a group established by the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in 2022 with the mandate to develop a legally binding global treaty to address plastic pollution.

Late Thursday night, countries had been awaiting a new text that could be the basis for further negotiations after delegations who want an ambitious plastics treaty threw out the one proposed on Wednesday.

States pushing for a comprehensive treaty, including Panama, Kenya, Britain and the European Union, shared frustration that key articles on the full life cycle of plastic pollution - from the production of polymers to the disposal of waste - as well as the harm to health had been removed entirely from the text.

Oil-producing nations are against curbs on the production of virgin plastics derived from petroleum, coal, and gas, while others want it to be limited and to have stricter controls over plastic products and hazardous chemicals.

"You cannot reconcile these two positions, and so I think that the chair will keep on trying. I don't know if he can, and if he can't, it will be time to seriously think about how to move forward," David Azoulay, the managing attorney of the Center for International Environmental Law's Geneva Office, told Reuters.

EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall said a "weak, static agreement serves no one".

"A treaty that covers the full life cycle of plastics and can evolve with science is a vital step ... The next few hours will show whether we can rise to the moment," she said in a statement.

Panama described Wednesday's draft text as "repulsive" and called for a complete rewrite.

Saudi Arabia, which is resisting major curbs, said nothing could be agreed until the treaty's scope was clearly defined.

More than 1,000 delegates have gathered in Geneva for the sixth round of talks, after a meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in South Korea late last year ended without a deal.

Advocacy groups held a banner and chanted against a "weak treaty" on Thursday as they waited for delegates to arrive in the U.N. plenary hall in Geneva for further discussions.

The OECD warns that without intervention, plastic production will triple by 2060, further choking oceans, harming health, and exacerbating climate change.

COMPROMISE

Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, co-chair of the High Ambition Countries group, told Reuters that all parties need to compromise.

"We are willing to discuss all articles, three, six, for example, to be able to create the package that can be good enough for everyone," he said, pointing to potential openness to re-discussing restrictions on chemicals and production.

Ross Eisenberg, president of America's Plastic Makers, which is part of the American Chemistry Council, said he was optimistic.

"We think this can be really good for our industry, society, and for the environment," he told Reuters.

The council, which supports a deal without limits on plastic production, warned that the U.S. might not ratify a treaty containing provisions to ban chemicals or restrict plastic production.

However, Colombian lawmaker Juan Carlos Lozada urged that no deal would be better than a watered-down deal.

Some 300 businesses, including Unilever, have pressed for an ambitious treaty that harmonises rules globally.

"If we don't get that degree of harmonisation, we risk further fragmentation ... and higher costs," Ed Shepherd, senior global sustainability manager at Unilever, told Reuters.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge in Geneva; additional reporting by Alexander Marrow in London; editing by Giles Elgood, Marguerita Choy and Stephen Coates)