The 5th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) session will take place in Nairobi on 28 February 2022. This event will address the development of a legally binding international treaty on plastic pollution between UN countries. The objective of the treaty is to reduce the discharge of plastics into the environment by covering all stages of the plastic life cycle and by adopting a circular economy approach to plastics.
Chemical pollution is an urgent, critical issue with harmful effects such as biodiversity loss and climate change. A recent study has shown that chemical pollution has crossed a planetary boundary, which means that chemicals are a serious problem disturbing the Earth’s systems, and large scale or irreversible environmental changes could arise. the management of chemicals and plastic pollution is poor and because of this, it is threatening critical systems that we depend on.
The study shows that plastics and pesticides production trends have grown, and it is expected that this production will continue to rise. The UNEA-5 is expected to tackle plastic pollution over its entire lifetime, so that the system so it becomes more sustainable and less likely to threaten the planet.
We invite you to read more on the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) here and more about the recent study on chemical pollution here.