diff --git a/src/command/render/defaults.ts b/src/command/render/defaults.ts
index 27d8152b481..7883fc307a4 100644
--- a/src/command/render/defaults.ts
+++ b/src/command/render/defaults.ts
@@ -192,5 +192,19 @@ export function pandocDefaultsMessage(
     }
   }
 
+  // suppress the internal `quarto.*` template-variable namespace. It is
+  // populated by Quarto (e.g. the full localized language table, see
+  // quarto-template-variables.ts) and would otherwise flood the render
+  // message. This is print-only: the defaults file actually written for
+  // pandoc (writeDefaultsFile) keeps the namespace intact. Clone before
+  // the nested delete — defaults.variables aliases the caller's object.
+  if (defaults.variables && "quarto" in defaults.variables) {
+    defaults.variables = { ...defaults.variables };
+    delete defaults.variables.quarto;
+    if (Object.keys(defaults.variables).length === 0) {
+      delete defaults.variables;
+    }
+  }
+
   return stringify(defaults as Record<string, unknown>);
 }
diff --git a/tests/docs/smoke-all/markdown/lang-fr-no-console-leakage.qmd b/tests/docs/smoke-all/markdown/lang-fr-no-console-leakage.qmd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..97c59700e50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/docs/smoke-all/markdown/lang-fr-no-console-leakage.qmd
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+---
+title: Test
+lang: fr
+format: markdown
+_quarto:
+  tests:
+    markdown:
+      printsMessage:
+        - level: INFO
+          regex: "toc-title-document"
+          negate: true
+        - level: INFO
+          regex: "crossref-ch-prefix"
+          negate: true
+---
+
+# Section
+
+A paragraph in French (`lang: fr`). The internal `quarto.*` template
+variable namespace must not flood the rendered pandoc defaults message
+printed to the console.
diff --git a/tests/docs/smoke-all/pdf-standard/ua2-unlabeled-figure-caption.qmd b/tests/docs/smoke-all/pdf-standard/ua2-unlabeled-figure-caption.qmd
index 78b23fb391c..73c863cf2e7 100644
--- a/tests/docs/smoke-all/pdf-standard/ua2-unlabeled-figure-caption.qmd
+++ b/tests/docs/smoke-all/pdf-standard/ua2-unlabeled-figure-caption.qmd
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 ---
-title: "UA-2: unlabeled figure caption produces invalid structure"
+title: "UA-2: unlabeled figure caption passes verapdf validation"
 lang: en
 format:
   pdf:
@@ -16,32 +16,27 @@ _quarto:
         - ['\\DocumentMetadata\{', 'pdfstandard=\{ua-2\}', 'tagging=on']
         - []
       printsMessage:
-        # Known issue: unlabeled captioned figures go through pandoc3_figure.lua
-        # which produces a bare \begin{figure}[H] environment. LaTeX's tagpdf
-        # places <Caption> as a sibling of <Figure> under <Document> instead of
-        # nesting them inside a grouping element. This violates UA-2 which
-        # requires <Caption> to be a child of <Figure>, <Table>, or <Formula>.
+        # Unlabeled captioned figures go through pandoc3_figure.lua, which
+        # produces a bare \begin{figure}[H] environment. This historically
+        # produced an invalid UA-2 structure tree where tagpdf placed
+        # <Caption> as a sibling of <Figure> under <Document> instead of
+        # nesting them inside a grouping element, and verapdf flagged it.
         #
-        # Labeled figures ({#fig-label}) go through FloatRefTarget, which wraps
-        # the figure in a \Div that provides the grouping context tagpdf needs.
-        #
-        # Structure produced (invalid):
-        #   /Document
-        #     /Caption    <- should be inside a grouping element
-        #     /Figure     <- sibling instead of parent
-        #
-        # Expected (valid, as produced by labeled figures):
-        #   /Document
-        #     /Div
-        #       /Caption  <- properly nested
-        #       /Figure
+        # With the tagpdf/luamml versions in current TeX Live, verapdf now
+        # passes UA-2 validation for this document, so the failure warning
+        # should no longer appear. We negate the assertion to lock in that
+        # behavior. Whether the structure tree is genuinely conforming (vs.
+        # verapdf leniency) is tracked in issue #14570.
         level: WARN
         regex: "PDF validation failed for ua-2"
+        negate: true
 ---
 
-# Known LaTeX tagging limitation
+# Unlabeled figure caption tagging
 
-An unlabeled captioned figure produces invalid UA-2 structure because
-tagpdf does not nest `<Caption>` inside a grouping element.
+An unlabeled captioned figure historically produced invalid UA-2 structure
+because tagpdf did not nest `<Caption>` inside a grouping element. With the
+tagpdf/luamml versions in current TeX Live, verapdf now passes UA-2
+validation for this document (see issue #14570).
 
 ![This is a caption on an unlabeled figure](penrose.svg)