After 10 days of talks, diplomats from 180 countries were unable to break their deadlock to finalize the world’s first treaty on plastic pollution in Geneva, Switzerland.
The summit, held at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, ended after an all-night contentious session on August 15, 2025.
According to Laurant Huber, Executive Director of Action on Smoking & Health,
“This breakdown is a direct result of the UN Environment Program’s failure to address conflicts of interest, allowing heavy interference from industry. ASH and our partners worked tirelessly to push back, pressing to keep the world’s most-littered plastic item — cigarette butts — on the treaty’s banned items list. . .
ASH will leverage another UN treaty — the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — meeting this November, to keep fighting for a global ban on cigarette filters and stronger protections for health and the environment.”