A new agreement to work towards a global treaty on ending plastic pollution has been hailed as a major breakthrough by campaigners. However, there’s still a long road ahead.
At a meeting in Nairobi in early March, the UN Environment Assembly adopted a resolution on plastic pollution. Delegates from 175 countries, including the UK, endorsed an agreement that addresses plastic waste and calls for two years of negotiations toward a comprehensive, international treaty on the full life cycle of plastics.
Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), called the agreement “the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord” on global warming in 2015.