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dpa
Nairobi
Strong momentum is building for a globally binding agreement to reduce plastic waste, the President of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) and Norwegian Environment Minister Sveinung Rotevatn said on Tuesday.
More and more countries were prepared to sign a plastic convention, Rotevatn said during the UN Environment Assembly, which was taking place online on Monday and Tuesday due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, whether member states will indeed pass a mandate to start negotiations for a global plastic treaty during the second part of the conference, scheduled to take place in person in February 2022, remained to be seen, Rotevatn said.
Germany, Ghana and Ecuador are to host a ministerial conference later this year in order to prepare such a treaty, Annett Guenther, German ambassador to Nairobi, announced at the assembly.
Preparations for the conference, which is to take place in the third quarter, would be discussed in the coming week, Guenther said.
The UN Environment Assembly usually meets every two years in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, the seat of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Because of the pandemic, the conference was for the first time split into two sessions, over two years.
During the first session on Monday and Tuesday, member states agreed on a UNEP strategy until 2025, among other things.
The conference announced for later in the year was “of extraodinary importance,” said World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Germany director of policy, Alois Vedder.
“Almost 70 countries have already publicly spoken out in favour of a binding global agreement at various levels,” Vedder, told dpa, citing a WWF survey.
“If we don’t act, the amount of plastic waste in the oceans will double over the next 15 years,” Vedder added.
Some 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans every year, according to UNEP.
“One thing is clear: the status quo is not an option,” said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen.
Andersen lauded the African continent, where 34 of 54 countries have already introduced some kind of plastic ban.
But much more action is needed, Andersen said.
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24/02/2021
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