Negotiations for a global plastics treaty kicks off in Paris

New Delhi: The second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee( INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment has begun at (UNESCO) Headquarters in Paris, France.

The five-day meeting (29 May to 2 June 2023 ) will be preceded by regional consultations on 28 May 2023, at the same venue.

In February 2022, United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), adopted a historic resolution titled “End Plastic Pollution: Towards an internationally legally binding instrument”

Under the resolution, Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), will complete a draft global legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024.

The resolution will also address the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design, and disposal.

The rapidly increasing levels of plastic pollution represent a serious global environmental issue that negatively impacts the environmental, social, economic, and health dimensions of sustainable development.

As per UNEP the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could nearly triple from some 9–14 million tonnes per year in 2016 to a projected 23–37 million tons per year by 2040.

The impacts of plastic production and pollution on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss, and pollution are a catastrophe in the making:

Exposure to plastics can harm human health, potentially affecting fertility, hormonal, metabolic, and neurological activity, and open burning of plastics contributes to air pollution.

By 2050 greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic production, use and disposal would account for 15 percent of allowed emissions, with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C (34.7°F).

More than 800 marine and coastal species are affected by this pollution through ingestion, entanglement, and other dangers.

Some 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flow annually into oceans. This may triple by 2040.

The UN agency said a shift to a circular economy can reduce the volume of plastics entering oceans by over 80 percent by 2040; reduce virgin plastic production by 55 percent; save governments US$70 billion by 2040; reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent; and create 700,000 additional jobs – mainly in the global south.