According to the information provided to the media after the meeting of the United Nations Environment Programme, the heads of state, environment ministers and other representatives of 175 countries approved the signing of the resolution. According to the resolution, an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee was established to sign an internationally legally binding agreement by 2024, covering the whole life cycle of plastic products, such as production, design, recycling and treatment.
The United Nations Environment Programme said the resolution would promote stakeholders to fundamentally change the way plastics are produced, consumed and managed. "Today we have made history. All of us should be proud of that." The president of the general assembly and Norwegian environment minister espenwald said.
According to the statistics of the Department, the global plastic production increased from 2 million tons in 1950 to 348 million tons in 2017. Ed said that if immediate action is not taken, the harm of plastic pollution will further expand and threaten human survival. "If plastics were incorporated into the circular economy system, plastics could be fully recycled. At that time, a legally binding resolution was put forward to end the plastic pollution crisis."
The executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, inger anosen, said that the resolution is the most important international multilateral environmental resolution since the Paris Agreement.
The United Nations Environment assembly is the highest decision-making mechanism on world environmental issues, and its predecessor is the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to upgrade the Governing Council to a United Nations Environment assembly attended by representatives of Member States. The first United Nations Environment Conference was held in Nairobi in June 2014.
The first phase of the fifth United Nations Environment assembly was held in February 2021, and the resumed session from February 28 to March 2, 2022 was the second phase.
