Effective global agreement to end plastic pollution must include limits on production

PARIS – In response to today’s decision to hold the fourth negotiating session for a new global agreement on plastics in Ottawa next year, David Suzuki Foundation climate director Sabaa Khan said:

“After stall tactics from fossil fuel producing countries delayed progress at this week’s negotiations toward a global treaty to end plastic pollution, it’s clear that Canada must play a stronger role in the negotiations. We are counting on the Government of Canada to do everything possible to keep negotiations on track and secure an effective treaty in 2024. The negotiations must give space for Indigenous rights holders and include informal waste workers’ representatives.

“There’s simply no way around it: we cannot hope to solve the plastic pollution crisis without reducing the problem at its source, and this means limits on plastic production. It is deeply concerning and disappointing that consensus did not emerge on this global crisis at the preliminary negotiations this week.

“It’s fitting that Canada will host the important 2024 negotiations, given the key role this country has played in other multilateral environmental agreements addressing chemicals and waste. Against that backdrop, there’s a real need now for Canada to step up on plastics, and the offer to host the 2024 negotiations bodes well.”

Khan attended the second international negotiating conference in Paris this week as an observer, and is available for media interviews.

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For more information or media interviews, please contact:

Brendan Glauser, bglauser@davidsuzuki.org, 604-356-8829

Background:

  • Canada announced today that the fourth international negotiating conference toward a new global agreement on plastic pollution will be held in Ottawa in April 2024.
  • Plastic pollution is a massive global problem. According to the UN, approximately 7 billion of the 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic produced from 1950-2017 (76 per cent) became plastic waste, ending up in landfills or dumped. Today, we produce 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year.
  • The new global agreement on plastics will be the first global environmental treaty forged since the Paris Agreement.
  • Countries agreed to a two-year negotiating mandate for the new plastics treaty at UNEA in 2022.
  • The second negotiating session was held in Paris this week.
  • Canada played an important role in negotiating the Stockholm Convention, Montreal Protocol and Minamata Convention.
  • May 2021 David Suzuki Foundation media release