Overview

• Delegations from around 180 countries adjourned the fifth UN session without approving a treaty text after rejecting a weakened draft.
• Oil-producing states pressed for a waste-management focus while over 100 members of the High Ambition Coalition sought binding production limits and design standards.
• Conference chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso’s overnight revision stripped nearly all legally binding obligations and was dismissed by multiple delegations.
• The Center for International Environmental Law counted 234 petrochemical industry lobbyists at the negotiations, underscoring industry’s sway over the process.
• Environmental data show annual plastic output tops 400 million tonnes with under 10 percent recycled and could treble by 2060 absent global limits.