Nations have agreed that the world needs to completely stop plastic waste from entering the oceans.
Roger Harrabin BBC environment analyst, Nairobi The UN resolution, which is set to be sealed tomorrow, has no timetable and is not legally binding.
But ministers at an environment summit in Kenya believe it will set the course for much tougher policies and send a clear signal to business. A stronger motion was rejected after the US would not agree to any specific, internationally agreed goals. Under the proposal, governments would establish an international taskforce to advise on combating what the UN’s oceans chief has described as a planetary crisis. Environmentalists say ministers are starting to take plastic waste more seriously, but need to move much more quickly. Li Lin from the green group WWF said: “At last we are seeing some action on this issue, but we still don’t have the urgency we need. The problem needs solving right now.”
UN resolution calling for targets to tackle ocean plastic waste rejected by US, China and India
A United Nations agreement that would have called for specific, internationally-agreed goals to tackle plastic waste in our oceans has been rejected by the US. Several countries, including China and India, also refused to include in the resolution a call on nations to adopt any reduction targets, but US officials “were clearly leading the discussion on this”, a source at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi told The Independent. Countries did agree that the world needs to stop plastics from entering the sea, but the final resolution published on Wednesday has no timetable and is not legally binding.