GLOBAL – G7 members (USA, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy and Canada) have pledged to end new plastic pollution by 2040, including taking steps to reduce microplastics and consider phase-outs of nonrecyclable plastics and “harmful” additives.
A statement released by G7 members said that the phase-out will be achieved by promoting sustainable consumption and production of plastics, increasing their circularity in the economy, and environmentally sound management of waste.
Germany, France, Canada, Britain and the European Union (EU) are already part of a multi-national coalition that made the same pledge last year, but this is the first time the remaining G7 members – Japan, the U.S., and Italy – have made the 2040 commitment.
The commitment came during an April 16-17 meeting of the bloc’s environment ministers in Sapporo, Japan.
“We are committed to end plastic pollution, with the ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040,” the G7 said in an April 16 statement.
G7 declarations are not binding, but the statement said the countries would “step up our actions based on a comprehensive lifecycle approach, promoting sustainable consumption and production of plastics, increasing their circularity in the economy and environmentally sound management of waste.”
“These actions include…addressing single-use plastics, nonrecyclable plastics as well as plastics with harmful additives through measures such as phasing out when possible and reducing their production and consumption; applying tools to internalize attributable costs of plastic pollution; and addressing the sources, pathways and impacts of microplastics,” the statement said.
The announcement came just before the UN has its next meeting on the plastics treaty, in late May in Paris, when the details will be discussed.
The declaration states that G7 members will cooperate constructively on the UN convention “including mandatory measures” and “covering the entire life cycle of plastics”.
A year ago in Nairobi, 175 countries convened to put an end to plastic pollution worldwide by developing a legally binding United Nations treaty by the end of 2024.
The next session to negotiate the treaty is scheduled for May in Paris. Among the anticipated measures is a global ban on single-use plastics, the establishment of a “polluter-pays” system and a tax on the production of new plastic.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), plastic waste has doubled globally in 20 years from 234 million tonnes to 460 million tonnes.
The OECD said 22 million tonnes of plastic were discarded in the environment in 2019 alone, with six million tonnes ending up in waterways, lakes and oceans.
Meanwhile, according to the UN Environment Assembly, plastic makes up at least 85 percent of total marine waste.
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