Delegates at a closing meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) in Geneva on Friday expressed their dismay at the failure to break a deadlock during the sixth round of talks in under three years, as countries remained deeply divided over the scope of any treaty. “South Africa is disappointed that it was not possible for this session to agree on a legally binding treaty, and positions remain far apart,” its delegate said at the closing meeting.

 Cuba’s delegate added that negotiators had “missed a historic opportunity, but we have to keep going and act urgently,” AFP reported. “The planet, and present and future generations, need this treaty.” More than 1,000 delegates from at least 180 countries had gathered in the Swiss city for the latest INC meeting, a group established by the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022 with the mandate to develop the world’s first legally binding global treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

 The negotiations in Geneva were intended to be the final round of talks that would produce a deal – although the same was said of the previous round held in Busan, South Korea, late last year. Delegates had been working to a Thursday deadline to reach an agreement and engaged in frantic last-minute negotiations into the early hours of Friday to try to strike common ground before talks collapsed. Countries remain divided between those seeking significant action, such as imposing caps on new plastic production, and those, mostly oil-producing states, who want the deal to focus on waste management.

 The so-called High Ambition Coalition, a large informal bloc including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, and many Latin American and African countries, has pushed for the treaty to introduce curbs on plastic production and phase out toxic chemicals. (Al Jazeera)