UN COMMITTEE WARNS ON DANGERS OF PLASTIC POLLUTION AT OTTAWA SUMMIT
The International Negotiating Committee (INC), a body mandated by the United Nations to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, has issued an alert on its dangers (including within the marine environment).
‘Plastic’ here refers to items such as bottled water, sachet water containers, plastic buckets, slippers, children’s feeding bottles, plastic cups and plates, among others.
From the INC’s report, NEWSWIRE’s correspondent understands that ailments caused by plastic pollution include cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, leukaemia, lymphorna, brain cancer, breast cancer and decreased fertility.
The report goes on to add that since plastic is non-biodegradable (ie it does not dissolve or rot over a long period of time), it remains in the water in its original state, thereby hampering the purity of its environment and disrupting the food chain, as marine life starts to die off and go extinct. This, in turn, has a negative effect on humans who rely on ocean life as the source of their revenue and nourishment. Marine activities also suffer economic setbacks, coupled with a deterioration in the quality of water in years to come.
It is not only water that suffers from the adverse effects of plastic pollution. It also pollutes the land, particularly when humans dump plastic waste into landfills; the soil gets damaged and as such cannot produce as required.
These are some of the concerns occupying the minds of delegates at the 4th World Summit on Plastic Pollution in Ottawa, the capital of Canada.
Before the Ottawa Summit, the three previous editions were held in Punta del Este, Mexico in November 2022, followed by the second in Paris, France, which took place in May/June 2023, while the 3rd INC Summit took place in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in November 2023. November 2024 will see the hosting of the next Summit in Busan, South Korea.
The Ottawa Summit was graced by about 2,500 delegates representing 170 member-nations of the UN and over 480 UN entities and non- governmental organisations (NGOs), as well as observer organisations – among them the International Charitable Initiative for Girl Child and Women Development Foundation (ICI-GWODEF) as represented by the President of the Nigerian chapter of ICI-GWODEF, Mrs. Helen Ibeji and Mrs. Olivia Nkoli Okaro.
Delegates at the Ottawa Conference were united in affirming their shared commitment to an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, at the end of conversations guided by a spirit of multilateralism.
Deliberations centered on emissions and releases, productions, product designs, waste management, problematic and avoidable plastics, financing, and a just transition. Delegates agreed to create an open-ended legal Drafting Group to form INC-5 by reviewing elements of the draft revised text to ensure legal soundness.
Though the scourge of plastic pollution seems insurmountable, delegates at the Summit demonstrated that they were bent on reducing it to its barest minimum (if not ending it altogether). In seven days of intense deliberations, delegates managed to build on and advance the revised draft text of the instrument, providing streamlined text and entering textual negotiations on several elements. It was an eloquent commitment to save future generations from the calamity that unchecked plastic pollution can pose.
Delegates left Canada having achieved both goals and having charted a clear path towards landing an ambitious deal which they hoped would be actualized in Busan, South Korea in November this year.
NEWSWIRE correspondent also learnt that at the end of the Summit, the representatives of the ICI-GWODEF (Nigeria Chapter) were hosted to a party by the Nigerian High Commission in Canada on the 29th day of April.
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