Arinze Chijioke
The 5th UN Environment Assembly concluded on Wednesday, March 2 in Nairobi, Kenya with a major resolution by the world’s ministers for the environment to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee that will forge an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution.
Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen had prior to the commencement of the assembly, announced that the global plastics treaty which has now been negotiated “holds the potential and the promise of being the biggest multilateral environmental breakthrough” since the Paris climate accords signed in 2015.
Plastic production has risen exponentially in the last decades and now amounts to some 400 million tons per year, with less than 10 per cent recycled and the rest burned or dumped on land where it often ends up in rivers and flows out to sea and drifts around the globe. This figure is expected to double by 2040.
Read also: Speech by UNEP Executive Director at the 5th UN Environment Assembly
Speaking during the assembly, the President of UNEA-5 and Norway’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, Espen Barth Eide, said that Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic.
“With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure,” he said. “Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly shows multilateral cooperation at its best,”.
On her part, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN, Amina J. Mohammed said, “today, no area on the planet is left untouched by plastic pollution, from deep-sea sediment to Mount Everest”.
She noted that the planet deserves a multilateral solution that speaks from source to sea, adding that a legally binding global agreement on plastic pollution will be a truly welcome first step.
In addition to putting an end to plastic pollution, the assembly also resolved to support the establishment of a comprehensive and ambitious science policy panel on the sound management of chemicals and waste and preventing pollution.
The Ministerial Declaration recognises humanity’s failure to date to manage chemicals and waste, a threat that is further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic through widespread use of single-use plastics and disinfectant chemicals.
Another resolution agreed by the Assembly focuses on nature-based solutions, including actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage ecosystems.
The resolution calls on UNEP to support the implementation of such solutions, which safeguard the rights of communities and indigenous peoples.
In her reaction, Andersen said, “having a universally agreed definition of nature-based solutions is important. When countries and companies claim that their actions are supporting nature-based solutions, we can now begin to assess whether this is accurate and what it entails. This is especially true given the just-released report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the need to scale-up adaptation, for which nature-based solutions will be crucial.”
Three resolutions prioritize ecosystem restoration, biodiversity protection, resource efficiency, consumption and production patterns, climate mitigation and adaptation, job creation and poverty reduction
In this context, the Assembly adopted a resolution to accelerate actions to significantly reduce nitrogen waste from all sources, especially through agricultural practices, and saving US $100 billion annually.
The Assembly which is made up of the 193 UN Member States and convenes every two years to advance global environmental governance, had a total of 14 resolutions, all intended to strengthen actions for nature to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Story was adapted from UNEP.
