Human beings are suffering and biodiversity is disappearing due to plastic pollution, Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, Rwanda’s Minister of Environment, said on January 18 while speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland during an event dubbed "How leaders and policymakers can turn the tide on plastic pollution.”

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Experts at the event acknowledged that the world is running out of time if governments are to meet the deadline of 2024/2025 to conclude the multilateral negotiations of a Global Plastics Treaty. The goal is to end plastic pollution by 2040; with all plastic applications reused, recycled, and responsibly managed during and after use while enabling a lower greenhouse gas emissions plastic economy.

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The third round of negotiations by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC), in 2023, concluded with little in the way of concrete plans to fix plastic pollution. Business representatives, leaders, policymakers and civil society groups are in Davos to meet and discuss how to put the INC process back on track towards a legally binding, ambitious and effective global treaty to end plastic pollution.

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The Treaty is needed since experts are saying that if the plastics industry was a nation, it would be the world’s fifth-largest in terms of greenhouse gas emission.

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Plastics are threatening the ability of the global community to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C, as greenhouse gases (GHG) are emitted throughout the plastic life cycle. Participants in Davos discussed how governments can unlock the current negotiation stalemate without settling for the lowest ambition version of the Treaty.

"We have to put the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC) on the plastics process back on track towards a legally binding, ambitious and effective global treaty to end plastic pollution,” Mujawamariya said.

"It is crucial to recognize the imperative need for a prompt response to the issue of plastic pollution. Human beings are suffering and our biodiversity is disappearing. It is essential to construct a sustainable economy that prioritizes both human health and the environment.”

She said that governments need to understand that the plastic production reduction target approach is the only way to address plastic pollution.

"You may not end pollution when the plastic tap is still on. We must turn it off or redesign plastic to sustainable levels where the plastic product will be durable, reused and safely recycled, most importantly home compostable.”

There is a need, she said, to unite the global community in seeking solutions to the urgent global plastic pollution, rather than avoiding it.

Incentivising plastic-free society

Governments need to start incentivising plastic-free society and related alternatives, Mujawamariya added, noting that this can increase readiness and ambition for a critical mass to support the INC process.

Beyond shared commitment to address plastic pollution, she noted that businesses and civil society need to deep dive in research and development and innovate to propose alternatives to plastics and adequate technologies.

"For a fact, studies show that globally we've generated seven billion tons of plastic waste in under a century of trying. Less than 10 percent of that has ever been recycled.

"We need them to invest and take risks with those plastic alternatives and technologies to bridge the gap and aid society in transitioning to a plastic-free environment. We need them to push us as governments, to be more ambitious in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) process by committing to take real action once we have a global treaty.”

In 2021, Rwanda established a fund to manage plastic waste.

The fund has created 1,300 green jobs.

Ever since the scheme was introduced, 1,500 tonnes of plastic waste from 24 drop-off points have been collected that would have otherwise gone to a landfill.

About 12 billion tonnes of plastic waste will accumulate in the world’s landfills and environment by 2050.

The international legally binding instrument, if adopted in 2024, could help to end plastic pollution by 2040.

In 2019, Rwanda banned single-use plastics.

The country is advocating for a global multilateral fund that will finance efforts by countries to end plastic pollution by 2040.