Plastics are ubiquitous in today’s world. The widespread use of plastics means plastic pollution comes from various sectors and industries, all of which use the material for bespoke applications with varying levels of risk when it comes to emissions into the environment and all of which require tailored interventions to mitigate these risks.
Plastics are ubiquitous in wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture, polluting land and sea, causing navigational hazards, blighting the coastal landscape and impacting communities and tourism when it washes ashore while often continuing to entangle and kill marine species as well as contaminating seafood for human consumption.
Ahead of the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3), the Chair, in cooperation with the Secretariat, has prepared a Zero Draft (ZD) of the text to form the basis for negotiations to develop a new legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.
‘Ghost gear’ is fishing gear which has been abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded at sea and is widely regarded as one of the most harmful forms of plastic marine debris.
This briefing looks at the potential application of three outlined principles. It provides recommendations for how they could be taken beyond simply references in preambular paragraphs and effectively guide both the process of developing a treaty and the enduring implementation and compliance of an instrument truly capable of ending plastic pollution.
In March 2022, at its fifth session, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted resolution 5/14 titled “End plastic pollution: Towards an international legally binding instrument,” convening an intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) to develop a new global agreement on plastic pollution. Negotiators must now move swiftly to agree to measures across the full lifecycle of plastic to end plastic pollution.