End Plastic Pollution for a Healthy Planet and Wellbeing

At the Stockholm50 Regional Multistakeholder Consultations for the Asia-Pacific, IGES’ Yasuhiko Hotta co-facilitated Parallel Working Group 1 on plastics. The Asia-Pacific, particularly Southeast/East/South Asia has emerged as both a major source & a hotspot of plastic pollution. At the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), countries agreed to end plastic pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. Regionally, ASEAN and others are developing action plans and leading initiatives. The Working Group discussed the current situation and challenges of international cooperation & domestic efforts, development of incentivising policies, & hopes for the plastics treaty. Voices from the public sector and experts stressed that the Asia-Pacific region should take the lead on ending plastics pollution, highlighting the importance of concrete measures and international cooperation to transform business models and lifestyles to make this happen. As the collective voice of state & non-state actors, outcomes from yesterday’s discussions will feed into the official Stockholm+50 event in June, bolstering the international negotiations to end plastic pollution and efforts of relevant countries in tackling this problem.