The United Nations applauds work on a worldwide plastic pollution treaty
The United Nations is expected to ratify a plan to establish the world’s first global plastic pollution pact, dubbed the “biggest significant green deal since the 2015 Paris climate agreement.”
Member states have been meeting in Nairobi for more than a week to agree on the framework of a deal to combat plastic pollution, which has spread from ocean depths to mountain summits.
According to Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, government officials will accept a resolution later today that lays out the general terms for a treaty that should be finalized by the end of 2024.
“This is a historic moment,” Ms Andersen told delegates in Nairobi, warning that the success of any agreement would depend on the final terms that are still to be negotiated.
During 90 hours of late-night conversations over the previous week, Switzerland’s ambassador for the environment, Franz Perrez, hinted to the differences between countries.
“This is a division between those who are ambitious and want to find a solution and those who don’t want to find a solution for whatever reasons,” he told a news conference in Nairobi on Tuesday.
“We have to overcome together the concerns of those who are not yet ready to make these ambitious steps that we would like to make together.”
-Reuters
