Nigeria, Aug. 10 -- As expectations about the establishment of a globally binding treaty to combat plastic pollution heighten, the journey toward achieving a consensus remains complicated.

This is against the backdrop of geopolitical and economic disparities among negotiators and observers at the ongoing plastics discussions in Geneva.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, which suffers from severe plastic pollution, is absent from the negotiations where the Africa Group is led by Ghana.

The discussions commenced on 5 August, when delegates from over 176 countries convened at the United Nations headquarters (Palais des Nation) in Switzerland, for the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (IN...