The UN agreed on Wednesday to launch a “historic” negotiation for the first global agreement against plastic pollution, an initiative that seeks to curb the tons of waste that threaten biodiversity.
The United Nations Environment Assembly (ANUE), the highest international body on this issue meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, adopted a motion that creates an “Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee” in charge of preparing a legally binding text by 2024 .
“We are making history today. You should all be proud,” Espen Barthe Eide, the Norwegian Minister for Climate and Environment and ANUE President, told delegates to a round of applause.
Earlier, the Norwegian official had recalled the link between climate and nature crises, “both so important (…) that we should not resolve one to the detriment of the other.”
The mandate of the negotiations establishes a very broad agenda and the negotiators will focus, for example, on the complete “life cycle” of plastic, that is, the impacts of its production, use, disposal and recycling.
The discussions will also implicitly cover limitation measures, at a time when more and more countries in the world have banned single-use plastic bags as well as other disposable products.
The mandate also provides for negotiating global goals in figures with measures that can be binding or voluntary, control mechanisms, the development of national action plans taking into account the specificities of the different countries, and an aid system for poor countries.
It concerns all forms of terrestrial or marine pollution, including microplastics created by the degradation of the waste of these products made from fossil hydrocarbons and responsible according to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) of about 3.5%. of greenhouse gas emissions.
further advance
The negotiations are due to start in the second half of this year and will be open to all UN member countries.
This “historic” decision constitutes the greatest environmental advance since the Paris agreement to combat global warming in 2015.
The inclusion in the negotiations of all their concerns makes the NGOs cautiously optimistic, even if they stress, like many observers and participants, that it will be necessary to watch so that they are not sugarcoated.
The commitment expressed by large multinationals, including some that use a lot of plastic packaging, such as Coca-Cola or Unilever, in favor of a treaty that establishes common rules reinforces optimism, despite the fact that these companies have not spoken out for precise measures.
The future text must give them visibility and avoid distortions in the competition of an industry that moves billions of dollars, according to its promoters.
Of some 460 million tons of plastics produced during 2019 globally, less than 10% is currently recycled and 22% has been abandoned in makeshift landfills, burned outdoors or dumped in the middle of nature, according to latest OECD estimates. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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