Want this in your inbox? Click here.
The United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) in March from the year 2022, issued a resolution called “End plastic pollution: Toward an internationally legally binding instrument”, which was the first biggest international step to approach the plastic emergency crisis.
Main objectives for the resolution:
- To foster the development and implementation of national action plans: Includes robust metrics and targets for management to reduce sources of waste, pollution prevention and clean up. Eradication on single-use plastic production. Strong plastic collection and recycling. Standard guidelines and traceable national reporting.
- To boost the importance of the informal sector of waste collectors: Informal collector workers are the first line step to collect trash in a lot of countries around the globe. Commonly, they collect recyclable items to sell them for a small income, and most of the time they are out of policy implementation, since work in the non-formal market. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are over 15-20 million waste collectors around the world.
- To defend the admittance of abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear in the global treatment, because it is the most destructive form of marine organisms. These materials may be in the sea ecosystem for years, causing irreparable damages, and there is not a potent international binding agreement to address the situation.
- To promote circular economy principles, to safeguard chemical recycling technologies, including support for recycling and superior product design. The entire plastic life cycle must be checked and approached with the further goal to keep plastic within the industry and without the environment. Hard decisions even imply cutting off financial support to technologies with harmful emissions to the water and air. The idea is to rid of the perpetual circular processes that are causing huge harm to the communities and the climate.
- To uphold proper financial support and technical capacity to guarantee all countries and territories can create and achieve resourceful strategies.
Positions held by various powerful economies:
The decision to determine the specific role of every country in this milestone to save the planet is tough. Many countries are resolving what will be their position during the negotiation process. However, as is common in international alliances, it has been shown some emerging groups with similar objectives and themes, and a few others claim their individual approach to the agreement.
For example, Norway has led the creation of the ambitious goal to End Plastic Pollution with more than 20 countries supporting the idea. Among the group, we may highlight the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, and all G7 economies showing their support for that motion. This coalition has 3 biggest goals to achieve:
- To confine consumption and production of plastic at sustainable levels.
- To facilitate a plastics circular economy to protect human health and the environment.
- To accomplish efficient environmental management, with rational plans and recycling of plastic trash.
On another hand, the USA appears to be supporting an agreement similar to the Paris Agreement signed in 2015. That kind of agreement is not legally binding by voluntary in the environment.
Despite the specific positions of the countries, we must work to find common solutions to the problem that involves all of us without barriers. Plastic emissions have become more and more intensive. Approximately 11 million metric tons of plastic are entering the seawater yearly and the need for global concern and agreement is more urgent now than ever.
More interesting articles about ocean conservation:
- CLEANING PLASTIC FROM THE SEA
- NAGP: MICROPLASTIC CONCENTRATIONS
- 8 Ways to help save the Oceans
- The source of Plastic pollution in the GPGP
If you have found something that is not correct, do not hesitate to give us a comment and let us know. And if you donate an extra $5 to our ally organizations, we will put your name in a donate list and everybody will know about your great heart. Thank you so much for your feedback.