More than 100 members of the United Nations will meet this month to develop a blueprint to establish the first ever global agreement on plastic pollution. It could be the most significant environmental pact since 2015’s Paris Agreement climate agreement, according to the U.N. What is at stake and why is it happening?
Plastic waste is everywhere on the planet. It is difficult to recycle, slow to decompose, and costly to bury or burn. It’s contaminating the food chains and causing damage to wildlife. Multiple scientific studies have shown that eleven million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each yearly. This figure is expected to triple by 2040 if production and use of throwaway plastics like grocery bags, delivery packaging, and drinks bottles is not reduced. – If the U.N. cannot agree on a deal to put the brakes on plastic pollution, there will be widespread ecological damage in coming decades, putting some marine species at risk of extinction and destroying sensitive ecosystems like coral reefs and mangroves, according to a World Wildlife Fund study https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?4959466/Ocean-plastic-pollution-to-quadruple-by-2050-pushing-more-areas-to-exceed-ecologically-dangerous-threshold-of-microplastic-concentration released this month.
– Rapidly growing plastic production, which is predicted to double over the next twenty years, also poses a major climate change threat. Plastic is largely made from fossil-fuel-derived materials. What’s the process?
The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), will be held in person and online at the U.N. From February 28 to March 2, the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya will be open. The primary goal of the meeting is to reach broad terms for a global plastic pollution agreement and to form an intergovernmental negotiation committee (INC) in order to broker a final deal.
– If the member states agree on a basic framework then the INC would spend at least two more years negotiating a final treaty. What could be included in a plastics agreement?
– These elements could include caps on plastic production and commitments by member states to phase out single use and hard-torecycle plastics. There might also be targets to increase waste collection and recycle rates. There are many possible outcomes. The key question is whether the provisions in any agreement would be legally binding or voluntary.
What is at risk for big businesses? ExxonMobil, Dow and Royal Dutch Shell, which are plastic-making oil and chemical companies respectively, have the most to gain from an ambitious treaty that would reduce plastic production or eliminate single-use packaging.
If the treaty placed restrictions on the production or design of plastics, it would impact big consumer goods brands such as Coca-Cola and Nestle, Nestle, PepsiCo, Nestle, and Unilever.
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff. It is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.