UN to Agree on Plan for ‘Historic’ Plastics Treaty

Date: 26 February 2022 - 22:00

News ID: ۱۰۰۴۳۳

NAIROBI (AFP) – More than 100 nations convening in Nairobi next week are expected to take the first steps toward establishing a historic global treaty to tackle the plastic crisis afflicting the planet.
Plastic has been found in Arctic sea ice, the bellies of whales and Earth’s atmosphere, and governments have been under increasing pressure to unite in action against the global scourge.
Negotiators are hammering out the framework for a legally binding plastic treaty that diplomats say is the most ambitious environmental pact since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
“This is a big moment. This is one for the history books,” Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told AFP this week.
The exact scope of the treaty remains to be defined. There are competing proposals being drafted ahead of a three-day UN environment summit starting Monday in Nairobi.
World leaders and environment ministers meeting in-person and virtually are expected to kickstart the treaty process by appointing a negotiating committee to finalise the policy details over the next two years.
But more than 50 countries, along with scientists, businesses and environment groups, have publicly called for tough new regulations on industry to curb the torrent of plastic entering the environment.
This could include caps on the production of new plastic -- which is made from oil and gas, and forecast to double by 2040 -- redesigning products to make recycling easier or less harmful, and phasing out single-use items.
Many countries, including major plastic producers like the United States and China, have expressed general support for a treaty, but stopped short of endorsing any specific measures.
But there is broad consensus that countries acting alone cannot fix the problem, and a coordinated global response is needed.
Since the 1950s, the rate of plastic production has grown faster than any other material, vastly outpacing national efforts to keep the environment clean.
Today, approximately 300 million tons of plastic waste -– equivalent to the weight of the human population –- are produced every year.
Less than 10 percent is recycled, with most ending up in landfill or the oceans.