Material pollution is one of the most serious international environmental problems in the world today, and like other global environmental problems such as climate change, water pollution and water scarcity, land degradation and desertification, to effectively solve the problem of plastic pollution, in fact, beyond the capacity of any one country, region or sector, it will inevitably require extensive cooperation from the international community.
Recently, the process of global cooperation to combat plastic pollution has finally taken a big step.
One. June 5 is the 50th World Environment Day, and this year's theme is "Solutions to Plastic Pollution". On the same day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for global action to break the dependence on plastic at the United Nations headquarters in New York to end plastic pollution.
Just a few days ago (June 2), more than 1,600 delegates from more than 160 countries and more than 300 observer organizations reached a consensus at a United Nations meeting in Paris, France, that the first draft of a global treaty on plastic pollution should be prepared in November this year and submitted to the next meeting to be held in Nairobi, Kenya. This is considered an important step forward in the international community's development of a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution.
In March last year, 175 countries ratified and signed the landmark resolution Ending Plastic Pollution (Draft), agreeing to form a legally binding international agreement on the matter by 2024. From the end of November to the beginning of December last year, the first United Nations global negotiations on plastic pollution were held in Uruguay, and the just-concluded Paris Conference was the second negotiation.
After the Paris meeting, some analysts said that although a series of negotiations reached by the international community marked that the coordinated management of plastic pollution has become a global consensus, there are still some major differences between the parties on the specific content of the treaty, including whether to set a ceiling on plastic production capacity, whether to reduce the production capacity of "problematic plastics", and whether the international treaty determines the plastic pollution control target or the target set by each country.
Two. On World Environment Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said through ** that the world produces more than 400 million tons of plastic every year, one-third of which is used only once; Every day, 2,000 garbage trucks loaded with plastic dump plastic into rivers, lakes and seas. The consequences have been catastrophic. Microplastics are ubiquitous in food, water and air. In addition, because plastic is a fossil fuel product, the more plastic is produced, the more fossil fuels are needed, and the climate crisis is getting worse.
The various stages of the "plastic cycle" are harmful to people's living environment, life, health, food and water. The production of plastic is almost entirely dependent on fossil fuels, releasing harmful substances in the process, and plastic itself contains toxic chemicals that pose a risk to people and nature.
With 85% of discarded plastic ending up in landfills or dumped into the environment, incineration, ** and other "false and misleading solutions" also exacerbate the threat, with plastics, microplastics and the harmful substances they contain appearing in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe, and plastic particles found in the ocean limiting the ability of marine ecosystems to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report released in May this year, "Cutting the Root Causes: How the World Can End Plastic Pollution and Create a Circular Economy", pointed out that a five-year delay in implementation could lead to an 80 million metric tons of plastic pollution by 2040, and that plastics could account for 19% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The OECD's Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060, released last year, also warns that if nothing is done, global plastics will nearly triple in 2060 compared to 2019, up from 4600 million tonnes to 123.1 billion tons, while plastic waste will also increase in the same proportion, from 35.3 billion tonnes to 101.4 billion tons.
Three. In his speech on the 5th local time, Guterres said that there are now scientific research results and solutions to deal with the problem of plastic pollution. Citing a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, he pointed out that global plastic pollution could be reduced by 80% by 2040 if immediate action is taken, including the reuse of plastic and the use of diverse materials other than plastic.
Finally, Guterres called on businesses, businesses and consumers to unite and break the dependence on plastic. He also advocates for zero waste management to build a truly circular economy. "Let's build a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future for humanity. ”
In recent years, many countries around the world have introduced relevant regulations and measures to curb the use of plastic products in their own countries or regions. However, the results of such efforts are often limited due to the lack of global** collaboration and systemic change at the business level.
To this end, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted the need for proactive market initiatives and policy guidance in countries to leverage existing plastics treatment technologies. To this end, the report calls for three major market reforms: "reuse, recycling, repositioning and product diversification".
Overall, the report argues, the shift to a circular economy will result in savings of 1$27 trillion. Further savings will be made by avoiding external factors such as health, climate, air pollution, degradation of marine ecosystems and litigation-related costs3$25 trillion. This shift could also help add a net 700,000 jobs by 2040, mostly in low-income countries, significantly improving the livelihoods of millions of workers in informal settings.
In addition, the report highlights that internationally agreed policies can help overcome the limitations of national planning and business action, sustain a thriving global circular plastics economy, unlock business opportunities and create jobs.