More than 170 countries at negotiations for the first-ever United Nations treaty on reducing plastic pollution have their final day of scheduled talks on Sunday, but tough debate continues.

The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution started on November 25 in Busan, South Korea.

A resolution adopted in 2022 at the UN Environmental Assembly calls for developing a legally-binding international agreement on reducing plastic pollution, with the ambition of completing work, by the end of this year.

One of the focal points is regulating plastic production.
The chairperson released an unofficial draft for setting global reduction targets and requiring countries to report how much they produced and what measures they took to achieve the goal.

The efforts to target plastic reduction are faced with opposition by the oil-producing nations.

An unofficial meeting continued until late Saturday night, but nations were unable to reach an agreement.

The text calls for a reduction or a ban on plastic products that are difficult to reuse or recycle.

It also proposes adopting the idea of plastic producers taking extended responsibility throughout the process of recycling or disposing plastic waste.

It remains to be seen whether participating countries can close the gap with just hours remaining in the talks.