The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has welcomed a decision by UN member states to develop a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution.
“This is a key moment in the effort to eliminate plastic waste and pollution on a global scale,” MacArthur said.
Work by the UN’s international negotiating committee will begin in the second half of this year on a legally binding treaty, with a target date of the end of 2024.
“The mandate agreed by UN member states opens the door to a legally binding treaty that deals with the root causes of plastic pollution, not just the symptoms,” MacArthur, founder and chair of trustees of the foundation, said.
“Critically, this includes measures considering the entire lifecycle of plastics, from its production, to product design, to waste management, enabling opportunities to design out waste before it is created as part of a thriving circular economy,” she said.
As Afloat reported earlier, The foundation – formed by solo long-distance sailor MacArthur after retiring from professional sailing in 2010 - had recently initiated a joint campaign with the World Wildlife Fund for a legally binding UN treaty on plastic pollution.
Voluntary agreements and existing measures cannot solve the plastic problem alone, the two organisations had pointed out.
The resolution voted in by the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) on March 2nd is “the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the [2015] Paris [ climate] accord,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said.
“ It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it,” Andersen said.
“It is the first time that UNEA has adopted a negotiation mandate for a new legally binding multilateral environmental agreement, and we commend UN member states for their determination to act,” the MacArthur Foundation said.
