UN Environment Assembly resumes session with resolution to end plastic pollution
Xinhua News Agency, Nairobi, March 2 (Reporter Li Hualing Bai Lin) The resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly passed the resolution to end plastic pollution (draft) in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on the 2nd. The legally binding resolution aims to push forward the global fight against plastic pollution.
Heads of state, environment ministers and other representatives from 175 countries approved and signed the resolution, according to information provided to the media by the UN Environment Programme after the meeting. The resolution states the establishment of an intergovernmental negotiating committee to reach an internationally legally binding agreement by 2024 covering the entire life cycle of plastic products, including their production, design, recycling and disposal, among others.
The UN Environment Programme said the resolution would push for a fundamental shift in the way concerned parties produce, consume and manage plastic waste. "Today we have made history, and we can all be proud of that." Said Norway's Environment Minister Espen Barter Eide, president of the conference.
World plastic production soared from 2 million tons in 1950 to 348 million tons in 2017, according to the agency's statistics. Eide said that without immediate action, the harm of plastic pollution will expand further and threaten human survival. "Plastics can be recycled if they are included in a circular economy and it is time for a legally binding resolution to end the plastic pollution crisis."
UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inghe Arnoldson said the resolution is the most important international multilateral environmental resolution since the Paris Agreement.
The UN Environment Assembly is the highest decision-making mechanism on global environmental issues, and its predecessor is the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program. In 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to upgrade the Council to the UN Environment Assembly with the participation of representatives of Member States. The first UN Environment Assembly was held in Nairobi in June 2014.
The first phase of the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly will be held in February 2021, and the resumed session from 28 February to 2 March 2022 will be the second phase.