Global treaty to cut plastic production needed

Global treaty to cut plastic production needed

Subject – Environment

Context – Global treaty to cut plastic production needed urgently: EIA report ahead of UN summit

Concept –

• A new global plastics treaty that takes into account the entire lifecycle of plastics needs to be developed urgently, a new report highlighted.
• The fifth session of the UNEA is taking place in two parts. UNEA 5.1 was held online from February 22-23, 2021. The substantive matters that required in-depth negotiations were deferred to UNEA 5.2 scheduled to be held from February 28-March 2, 2022.
• The rise in plastic pollution spilling into the environment is a planetary emergency.

To know about Plastic Pollution, please refer October 2021 DPN.

UNEA

The United Nations Environment Assembly is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment. It addresses the critical environmental challenges facing the world today. Understanding these challenges and preserving and rehabilitating our environment is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Environment Assembly meets biennially to set priorities for global environmental policies and develop international environmental law. Through its resolutions and calls to action, the Assembly provides leadership and catalyses intergovernmental action on the environment.

History of the United Nations Environment Assembly

The United Nations Environment Assembly was created in June 2012, when world leaders called for UN Environment to be strengthened and upgraded during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also referred to as RIO+20. The Environment Assembly embodies a new era in which the environment is at the centre of the international community’s focus and is given the same level of prominence as issues such as peace, poverty, health and security. The establishment of the Environment Assembly was the culmination of decades of international efforts, initiated at the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 and aimed at creating a coherent system of international environmental governance.

1^st Session of UNEA: 2014

2^nd Session of UNEA: 2016

3^rd Session of UNEA: 2017

4^th Session of UNEA: 2019

5^th Session of UNEA: Session 5.1 in 2021 and 5.2 in 2022