The United Nations Environment Programme has set a date and place for the new round of negotiations towards a Global Plastics Treaty.
The second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) will take place from August 5 to 14, 2025, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
The resumed session will be preceded by regional consultations on August 4, 2025.
The new round of negotiations come as countries failed to reach agreement last December in Busan, South Korea.
The UN resolution that launched the plastics treaty in 2022 envisioned Busan as the fifth and final round.
But with countries unable to bridge some sizeable gaps, they ended Busan with calls to have the treaty's administrative body, the intergovernmental negotiating committee, organise INC 5.2.
The main points of contention include disputes over limiting production, regulating chemicals, and paying for the treaty.
The European Union, part of the High-Ambition Coalition, now supports majority voting for a global plastics treaty while suggesting it would rather walk away from a bad deal than agree to a treaty it sees as too weak.
How to make decisions has been very contentious in the previous five rounds, with the current rules calling for countries to make decisions based on consensus of all 170-plus nations in the talks.
Those who favour a more ambitious agreement say they still see a path for landing a treaty that would put limits on resin production and restrict some products and chemicals.
In recent public statements, diplomats from those countries say they're working behind the scenes to "consolidate" growing support for those ideas that surfaced at the last round of talks.
Steve Toloken contributed to this report.