175 Countries Agree to End Plastic Pollution

From Nature and New Scientist:

On March 2, leaders of 175 nations agreed to forge a treaty to tackle plastic pollution. Delegates rose in a standing ovation as the resolution was adopted at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Kenya. A negotiating committee will spend the next two years hammering out the final deal.

Crucially, the treaty will be legally binding and will address the full life cycle of plastics. Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, called the agreement the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris climate accord in 2015. “We now have one text. It speaks to full life cycle; it speaks to legally binding; it speaks to a financing mechanism; it speaks to understanding some countries can do it more easily than others,” says Anderson. “It has been a long, hard road, but I’m very happy.”

Read the story at New Scientist | 4 min read

Reference: Full text of the adopted resolution | 4 pages