The UN is trying to coordinate an international response to a new scourge. “Plastic pollution has developed to the point of becoming a veritable epidemic too”, asks the President of the United Nations Environment Assembly (Anue), the Norwegian Minister of the Environment Espen Barth Eide. This Monday, Anue opened work that could lead to a treaty to stop plastic pollution. “I am convinced that the time has come for a legally binding treaty”said the minister.
“There is a groundswell of support and expectation from public opinion” facing a “huge, huge problem”added Inger Andersen, executive director of Unep, the UN environment agency. “An enormous responsibility weighs on our shoulders”, she continued, calling on delegates to pave the way for the negotiation of a treaty “strong”. A text which, according to her, should provide for collective commitments and “a strong monitoring mechanism”, with funding to help the poorest countries and an approach to plastic products in “life cycle”, that is to say from production to distribution, up to the possibility or not of their recycling. Such a decision “historical” would be the main progress in terms of the environment since the Paris agreement to fight against global warming in 2015, she estimated.
“Deadly Time Bomb”
Concretely, the assembly should adopt by Wednesday a motion creating an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, with a view to drawing up a treaty on plastic pollution, with the possible deadline of the next UN environment assembly, in two years.
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the preparatory work allowed several proposals on the table to be merged into a single text. With such support from governments, industry and civil society, “we are awaiting the adoption of a decision confirming that there will be a strong and legally binding treaty”assures Eirik Lindebjerg, responsible for the plastic file for the environmental NGO WWF International.
“Plastic pollution is a deadly time bomb. A solution commensurate with the problem is not only essential, but non-negotiable,” insisted for his part Erastus Ooko, in charge of the file for Greenpeace Africa, in a press release. The plastic boom has accelerated during the pandemic, generating ever more single-use waste. The UN was concerned about this at the beginning of the month.
Of the 460 million tonnes of plastics produced in 2019 worldwide, less than 10% is currently recycled and 22% abandoned in wild dumps, burned in the open air or released into the environment, according to the latest estimates from the OECD.