A mandate to negotiate a global, legally binding agreement on plastics, covering the entire life cycle of plastics from production to disposal, to defeat plastic pollution was approved on Wednesday 2 March at the end of the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in Nairobi.
This negotiating mandate meets the expectations of the EU (see EUROPE 12885/4) and environmental NGOs.
“A big step forward has been achieved at a global level! About 11 million tonnes of plastic enter our ocean each year and this is expected to triple in the next 20 years”, EU Environment and Oceans Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said straight away on his Twitter account.
The future international agreement will be accompanied by financial and technical support. The negotiating mandate is open, which will allow for additional topics.
Environmental NGOs such as the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), breakfreefromplastics and Zero Waste Europe welcomed “a historic step forward”, which fulfils the demands of more than a thousand civil society groups and over 1 million citizens, who had called for an international treaty to defeat plastic pollution. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)