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Energy & Environment

New plastics treaty text tests path out of negotiating deadlock

Plastics treaty chair offers informal roadmap to resume talks, but environmental lawyers say it sidelines global controls.

, and Arete News Staff

August 10, 2026 . 7:11 PM

4 min read

A truck prepares to remove Benjamin Von Wong’s The Thinker’s Burden, an art installation surrounded by plastic trash. — A truck prepares to remove Benjamin Von Wong’s The Thinker’s Burden, an art installation surrounded by plastic trash, that drew attention outside the Palais des Nations in Geneva during the last round of plastic treaty talks. (AN)

GENEVA (AN) — The chair of U.N. negotiations on a global plastics treaty has circulated a new draft intended to help governments find a path out of a year-long deadlock, but environmental advocates say it retreats from the binding global controls needed to curb plastic pollution.

Julio Cordano, chair of the U.N. Environment Program's Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, released the 19-page “Aid to Negotiations” as an informal reference document to guide another round of heads-of-delegation talks in Bangkok next month.

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Energy & Environment — U.N. Environment (UNEP) — Europe — Switzerland — Center for International Environmental Law — Kenya — Thailand

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