Unless an international agreement is inked, Plastic waste should triple by 2060, causing significant damage – including our health – according to the United Nations environment program (Dive).
The talks led by UNEP followed a decision in 2022 by the member states to meet and develop a legally binding international instrument to put an end to the crisis of plastic pollution, including in the marine environment in the two years.
The scale of the problem is massive, with straws, cups and agitators, transporter bags and cosmetics containing single -use microbead microbeads found in our oceans and discharge sites.
Supporters of an agreement have compared it to the Paris climate agreement in terms of meaning. They also underlined the pressure which claims to be exerted against an agreement by Petrostats, whose crude oil and natural gas provide the constituent elements of the plastics.
“We will not recycle the crisis of plastic pollution: we need a systemic transformation to reach the transition to a circular economy”, “ The Executive Director of UNEP, Inger Andersen, insisted.
Circular argument
The purpose of the agreement is that it encompasses the full life cycle of plastics, from design to production and elimination “To promote plastic circularity and avoid plastic leaks in the environment”,, According to the text used to guide the talks of the Rally of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC) in the Swiss City.
At 22 pages, the Document Inc Contains 32 projects of articles that will be discussed online. The text is designed to shape the future instrument and will serve as a starting point for negotiations.
10 -day stint
During 10 days from August 5 to 14, delegations from 179 countries are due to pores on the INC text while they meet in the UN Geneva, alongside more than 1,900 other participants of 618 observers’ organizations, including scientists, environmentalists and industry representatives.
One of the main objectives of Reunion is to share proven and tested means of reducing the use of plastic such as non -plastic substitutes and other safer alternatives.
Before the talks in Geneva, the medical journal respected The Lancet published a warning that the materials used in plastics cause an extensive disease “at each stage of the plastics life cycle and at each stage of human life”.
According to more than two dozen health experts cited in the journal, infants and young children are particularly vulnerable. “Plastics are a serious, growing and under-regulated danger for human and planetary health” and are responsible for economic losses related to health exceeding $ 1 · $ 5 billion per year, “he noted.
To follow discussions on live plastic pollution on the UN Web TV, click here: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k16/k16cqrvu2w
Directing talks in Geneva is Jyoti Mathur-FilippExecutive secretary of the Intergovernmental (or Inc) negotiation committee on plastic pollution and head of the secretariat of the inc.
“Just in 2024, humanity was to consume more than 500 million tonnes of plastic. From this, 399 million tonnes will become waste, “she said.
The latest forecasts indicate that plastic leaks in the environment will increase by 50% by 2040. “The cost of damage caused by plastic pollution could increase as high as a cumulative of 281 billions of dollars between 2016 and 2040,” she said.
The road to an international agreement:
Five negotiation sessions to a plastic treaty have been held so far:
- The first was in Uruguay in November 2022.
- Two others followed in 2023 – in France and Kenya.
- In April 2024, the intergovernmental negotiation committee (INC) met in Canada.
- More recently, discussions took place in Busan, Republic of Koreaat the end of last year. These talks were postponed after the delegations agreed to resume discussions in Geneva, under the leadership of the Chairman of the Committee, Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso of the Ecuador.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
