Speak up for those who have no voice, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Proverbs 31:8-9 NIV
Two years ago, in March 2022 the gavel came down on a historic resolution at the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi to end plastic pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. Heads of State , ministers of Environment and other representatives from 193 member states agreed on this landmark agreement. Plastic production has risen exponentially in the last decades and now amounts to some 400 million tons per year– a figure set to double by 2040.
This landmark agreement agreed to address the full lifecycle of plastic from source to sea. A cap would be placed on new plastic production, certain toxic and hard to recycle items would be banned, single use plastics drastically reduced and waste management and recycling improved considerably .
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said the agreement is the most important international multilateral environmental deal since the Paris climate accord.
Since that event, a process was set up called the INC (Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee) to work out the details of that treaty . On the 23-29 of April 2024, governments will come together in Ottowa in Canada for the fourth round of negotiations for a global treaty to end plastic pollution. This treaty is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a global solution to this worsening global crisis. Unless governments agree on an ambitious and fair treaty with legally binding global rules, plastic pollution is likely to triple by 2040, accumulating in our food and water and exacerbating the risk of flooding. To solve this crisis, all countries must adopt a treaty that will ban avoidable high risk plastic items – those that cause the most harm or are most prone to leaking into the environment.
The problem is – the fossil fuel companies are panicking. Projected sales of oil are dropping as the world transitions to electric vehicles and they see plastic as a life line. They are in fact projecting an increase in sales of oil to manufacture plastic – and are building new petrochemical plants especially in the USA
We all need to do what we can to influence our countries negotiators at the INC . The role of faith communities is key here as the plastic polluters are saying things like “vulnerable communities need plastic products because the eco-friendly ones are too expensive” “the problem is waste management not plastic production”
We need to bring stories of the impact of plastic on our most vulnerable communities – health impacts of dumping, flooding from the drains being blocked, air pollution from burning of plastics – and let our negotiators know.
Here is the list of your national negotiators – write to them!! Before it is too late
https://www.unep.org/inc-plastic-pollution/national-focal-points