A major agreement on tackling plastic pollution has fallen apart after two years of negotiation.

Talks involved 200 nations in Busan, South Korea, at the fifth round of negotiations (INC-5) for a global plastics treaty, but a dividing line between those that wanted to phase out plastic and oil producing nations caused a rift that could not be bridged.

On one side of the rift nations wanted to reduce plastics altogether, the other saw the whole purpose of the talks as an end of plastic pollution, not plastic itself.

Key to the debate is the use of fossil fuels. As the world turns to renewable energy sources and electric transportation oil use in these areas will decline, with the IEA predicting a peak around 2030. In order for oil producing states to keep production the use of oil in plastics would soften the decline.

The talks will, none-the-less, reconvene next year, with expectations that there will be an increasing number of countries opting for a more ambitious treaty as opposed to a weak one.

“The clock is now ticking for governments to make a decisive choice at the next negotiating session in 2025. It’s encouraging to see such a strong majority of countries supporting global rules across the plastics lifecycle,” commented Rob Opsomer, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s executive lead on plastics and finance.

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