United Nations negotiators representing roughly 180 countries remain deadlocked in Geneva as the final scheduled round of talks to craft the world’s first legally binding treaty on plastic pollution heads into its 14 August deadline. Talks chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso warned early in the two-week session that progress was “insufficient,” and little ground has been gained since. The core dispute is whether the agreement should impose global caps on virgin plastic production or focus mainly on waste management, recycling and product design. The European Union, Pacific island states and several Latin American nations want binding limits on production, while oil-producing countries—including Saudi Arabia and, diplomats say, the United States—insist the treaty stay away from upstream controls. A 10-page compromise draft circulated by Vayas on 13 August stripped out language on production cuts and phased-out single-use plastics. The text was immediately rejected by dozens of delegations: the EU called it “not acceptable,” Panama said it amounted to “surrender,” and Kenya warned it contained “no global binding obligations.” Saudi Arabia also objected, saying several of its red lines had been crossed. With more than 1,000 issues still bracketed earlier in the week and just hours remaining, delegates privately concede that a formal extension or a fresh negotiating mandate may be unavoidable. Outside the UN complex, advocacy groups have intensified pressure. An 18-foot sculpture dubbed “Thinker’s Burden” is being progressively buried in plastic waste by Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong, while the Geneva-based Gallifrey Foundation handed delegates soap bars emblazoned “no dirty tricks, vote for a clean plastics treaty.” More than 700 francophone NGOs issued an open letter demanding a treaty with measurable production-reduction targets, underscoring rising public scrutiny as the talks teeter on the brink of collapse.