Paris: UN publishes first draft of global agreement against plastic waste

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The international agreement to prevent plastic waste is one step closer: On Monday (local time), the UN published the first draft of a legally binding agreement against plastic pollution in the environment and the seas. In June in Paris, delegates from 175 countries agreed to have the draft ready by the end of November. The final text of the contract should be ready by the end of 2024.

Global plastic production has more than doubled in the last 20 years, reaching 460 million tons per year. Experts predict that this number will triple by 2060 unless countermeasures are taken. Every day, 2,000 garbage truckloads of plastic waste are dumped into the oceans, rivers and lakes, mostly in the form of microscopic particles. This so-called microplastic is now found in mountain tops and in the human bloodstream.

The focus of the first global agreement to reduce plastic pollution is, among other things, reducing the production of petroleum-based plastics that environmentalists have demanded for years. However, major plastic manufacturers such as the USA and Gulf Countries reject this and instead encourage reuse and recycling to reduce the amount of waste.

Eirik Lindebjerg, plastics expert at the environmental protection organization WWF, said in online networks that the draft agreement released by the UN negotiating committee “provides a solid foundation for the remaining negotiations, but contains both strong and weak options”.

Greenpeace expert Sam Chetan-Welsh described the goal of stopping plastic production as “necessary”. Therefore, subsequent rounds of negotiation will show, on the online service formerly known as Twitter, “whether we come to a globally binding contract or a gap-filled agreement where no one needs to do anything,” he wrote.

The draft agreement will be discussed in the third of five rounds of negotiations in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in November. Negotiations are scheduled to continue in Canada in April 2024 and conclude in South Korea by the end of 2024.

(AFP)

Source :Blick