A day to mark with a white stone… or a recycled plastic pebble, like Espen Barth Eide’s hammer. The Norwegian Minister of the Environment, President of the Assembly for the Environment of the United Nations, endorsed with a stroke of his accessory the motion creating an “Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee” responsible for developing a text against pollution “legally binding” plastic by 2024. “Today, we are writing history. You can be proud, ”he said to the applause of the standing delegates.
The hundreds of millions of tons of waste produced each year, which degrades into micro-plastics, are found in all the oceans of the globe, in the sea ice, in the stomachs of animals and even in the air taken from the summit. of mountains. In 2019, 353 million tonnes of waste were generated in this way. Only 10% have been recycled, compared to 22% abandoned in wild dumps, or even burned in the open. To address the scale of the problem, the mandate for negotiations is very broad, taking into account “the entire life cycle of plastic”, as environmental activists demanded. It may thus relate to production as well as use, waste management, reuse or recycling.
“We will eliminate plastic pollution from our environment”
The mandate includes developing oversight mechanisms and financing for poor countries and cooperating with the private sector in an industry worth billions. It will also be able to set objectives and define “binding” or “voluntary” measures, and provide for national control plans, while taking into account the specific “circumstances” of the different countries.
According to the OECD, marine and land plastic pollution is also responsible for 3.5% of greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. But above all it contributes to the collapse of biodiversity, which is essential to fight against the climate crisis, according to the latest IPCC report.
“The message is that we are going to eliminate plastic pollution from our environment,” insisted Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN environment agency (UNEP). But she acknowledged that the negotiations, which are due to begin in the second half of 2022 until the end of 2024, would come up against “thorny issues”, such as the definition of “objectives”: “how to measure” compliance with them or even the “speed of implementation” of the new rules.
Activists satisfied but vigilant
Defenders of the environment welcomed each other, while displaying their vigilance on the progress of the negotiations. “We are at a turning point in history, where the ambitious decisions taken today can prevent plastic pollution from contributing to the collapse of our planet’s ecosystem”, commented Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF, while emphasizing that “the job is far from done”. Graham Forbes, Plastics Manager at Greenpeace USA, hailed a “great step forward” which “recognizes that the entire life cycle of plastic (…) causes pollution”. But the NGO also promises not to release the pressure “until a treaty is concluded and signed”.
The commitment displayed by large multinationals, including some major users of packaging such as Coca-Cola or Unilever, for a treaty setting common rules reinforces optimism, even if they have not decided on specific measures. The association of European producers, Plastics Europe, hailed “a major step towards creating a waste-free future”. She welcomed that the resolution recognizes “the essential contributions of plastic applications” which must be made “circular and climate neutral”.