(Demand a Strong Global Plastics Treaty to Protect Our Ocean!)
The fourth session of the United Nation Environment Programme’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) to develop “an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution including in the marine environment” – more commonly known as the Global Plastics Treaty – officially takes place from April 23 to 29 at the Shaw Center in Ottawa, Canada. But representatives from environmental nonprofit organizations, environmental justice communities, industry lobbyists and the 175 U.N. member states have been arriving at Canada’s capital for days in advance. Activists passionate about demanding real change to stop plastic pollution include Surfrider Foundation's Plastic Pollution Initiative Senior Manager Jennifer Savage and Clubs Network Coordinator Carolyn Curtin. Joining from Surfrider Foundation Canada are Executive Director Lucas Harris and Surfrider Canada Regional Manager Lilly Woodbury.
While many countries have formed a “high ambition coalition” calling for meaningful, legally binding measures to reduce plastic pollution by reducing plastic production – the only legitimate way to stop the flow of toxic trash into our ocean, air, water, food and bodies – other countries continue to delay the negotiations and/or insist the problem is merely one of waste management.
Unfortunately, the United States has yet to commit to time-bound national plastic production reduction goals. In preparation for INC-4, members of Surfrider's Club Network have been sending postcards calling on President Biden to call for strong, binding commitments.
With only one more negotiating meeting scheduled beyond INC-4, what happens this week will reveal which governments are willing to truly step up and hold plastic polluters accountable for the harm being done to the climate, the ocean and all creatures, including humans, that depend on a healthy planet. We are still far from seeing the sort of broad commitments that would truly address the plastic crisis. (Read about the Zero Draft of the treaty here.) With that in mind, members of the global Break Free From Plastic Pollution coalition rallied and marched today, demanding an End to the Plastic Era.
Surfrider joins our allies calling for a strong, binding Global Plastics Treaty:
- We call on governments to deliver a Treaty that is rooted in human rights and Indigenous rights and elevates the knowledge, voices, and experiences of people living on the frontlines of the crisis, Indigenous Peoples, workers, youth, and independent scientists.
- We want a Treaty that limits and reduces plastic production as a non-negotiable requirement to end plastic pollution. We want a Treaty that bans toxic chemicals and additives in all virgin, recycled, and alternative plastics.
- We want a Treaty that promotes reuse systems over recycling and single-use alternatives like bio-based plastics; a Treaty that sets strong regulations on the plastic waste trade and holds polluting corporations and plastic-producing countries accountable for the profound harms to human rights, human health, ecosystems, and economies arising from plastic pollution; a Treaty that promotes a Just Transition for impacted communities and workers across the plastics life cycle.
- The mandate to negotiate the Treaty was a groundbreaking achievement. Now is the time for governments to choose whether they will deliver another fossil fuel giveaway or a Treaty that confronts the crisis head-on.
Watch for more updates as INC-4 gets underway! And please – Demand a Strong Global Plastics Treaty to Protect Our Ocean!