The Governments of Rwanda and Norway have launched the High Ambition Coalition to end plastic pollution.

Canada, Peru, Germany, Senegal, Georgia, Republic of Korea, UK, Switzerland, Portugal, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Costa Rica, Iceland, Ecuador and France are among countries that have joined the coalition.

The High Ambition Coalition, launched on Monday August 22, 2022 was first initiated following the historic UN Environment Assembly resolution passed in March 2022 to start negotiations of an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.

The coalition to end plastic pollution will issue statements and undertake inter-sessional work on essential elements and issues to inform the negotiations in order to develop a landmark treaty by 2024.

Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway and co-chair of the coalition, Espen Barth Eide said: "We took the initiative to form a group of ambitious countries to work for a truly effective global treaty that will establish common global rules, turn off the tap and end plastic pollution by 2040.”

Why the ban?

Rwanda’s Minister of Environment and co-chair of the coalition, Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, remarked that Rwanda started the journey to end plastic pollution in 2004.

However, she said, unfortunately plastic wastes are still visible downstream.

"This proves the need for global efforts towards a common goal of ending plastic pollution because this is an unacceptable burden to place on future generations. Plastic pollution constitutes a planetary crisis with impacts on human health, biodiversity and climate system,” she said.

Plastic pollution has reached unprecedented levels worldwide and is projected to rise significantly in the next decades.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Plastic Outlook Policy Scenarios study, without urgent global action, the volume of plastics in rivers and lakes will increase from 109 million tonnes in 2019 to 348 million tonnes in 2060, while plastics leaking into the ocean will rise from 30 million tonnes in 2019 to 145 million tonnes in 2060.

Plastic consumption is projected to skyrocket in the coming decades, from 460 million tonnes in 2019 to 1,231 million tonnes in 2060.

The most significant sectors driving consumption are packaging, vehicles and construction which will make up 2/3 of all use.

All plastics are made of chemicals, from basic polymers to additives and processing aids.

Over 10, 000 chemicals associated with plastics and plastic manufacturing across a wide range of applications have been identified and over 2,400 of these chemicals are noted as potentially hazardous to human health and the environment.

Less than 10 per cent of the plastic waste ever produced has been recycled.

According to the OECD, half of all plastic waste will continue to be landfilled and plastic pollution will double if we continue on our current path.

Some of the world’s largest corporations-including Unilever, P&G, Walmart and Coca Cola- have joined together to call for global targets and standards for the plastics lifestyle, to create an even playing field for them to develop new circular business models and make a circular economy work in practice and at scale.

Meeting in New York

Members of the High Ambition Coalition to end plastic pollution will meet in New York in a few weeks, during the UN General Assembly, to discuss next steps in the coalition’s work.

The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee is set to commence November 28 in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

The High Ambition Coalition has outlined three strategic goals and seven key deliverables for success in the negotiations:

The goals include restraining plastic consumption and production to sustainable levels, enabling a circular economy for plastics that protects the environment and human health as well as achieving environmentally sound management and recycling of plastic waste.

Minister of Environment and Climate Change in Canada, Steven Guilbeault stated: "Canada is committed to end plastic pollution and is actively engaged in negotiations towards a new global agreement on plastics to ensure it is ambitious, legally binding and takes into account the full lifecycle of plastics.”

"The use of plastics in our society has reached unsustainable levels. We need to minimise the demand of plastics and increase the supply of recycled plastics for new products, in order to achieve sustainable consumption and productive patterns,” Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Mackay added.