Civil Society Organisations Calls on Ministers to Raise Africa’s Ambition for a Strong, Legally Binding Global Plastics Treaty ahead of the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5)
Dear Ministers,
We, the undersigned, representing 33 civil society organisations based in 15 African countries, would like to commend the African Group of Negotiators for their outstanding leadership in the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations thus far, to achieve an international legally binding instrument that reflects Africa’s commitment to end plastic pollution and to protect human health and the environment.
Plastic pollution is not only an environmental challenge, it also includes widespread socio-economic and potential human health and human rights challenges that are particularly visible in African countries. For Africa, plastic pollution has deepened existing injustices caused by colonialism, slavery, racism, and capitalism, which exceeds our planetary boundaries and disproportionately harms low-income communities.
Although Africa did not start the plastic crisis and remains responsible for only 5% of plastic production and 4% of consumption globally, Africa is the region most affected by the severity of plastic pollution and the lack of global measures to effectively address it.
As we reach the final sprint towards developing a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution through a full life cycle approach as set out by UNEA Resolution 5/14, in 2022, the world is watching closely.
The Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) will determine whether a future free from plastic pollution is secured or not, through a legally binding global target on production reduction.
We have the science, the global popular support, and now we need the political will to advance the Global Plastics Treaty. A major new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, reveals that deep primary production cuts are urgently needed for our planet to avoid breaching the 1.5 degree limit set by the Paris Agreement, at least 11.8% to 17.3% per year, starting in 2024. We also have the numbers as 144 countries in their submissions across all INCs thus far have ambitiously put plastic production reduction on the table. It is time for us to listen and recognise that plastic pollution knows no borders, and it affects and contaminates us all regardless of age, creed or gender.
Settling for an instrument established on the grounds of nationally determined, voluntary targets and waste management efforts solely will jeopardise a once-in-a-generation opportunity to truly solve plastic pollution. Negotiators must deliver a treaty that is fit for the purpose of ending plastic pollution.
Therefore, the following non-exhaustive list of indispensable elements must be considered at the core of the INC negotiations by the African Group of Negotiators.
5 core elements for a strong International Legally Binding Instrument to End Plastic Pollution:
- The treaty must honour the mandate of the UNEA 5/14 resolution that covers the full life cycle of plastics. This can be achieved through dedicated legally binding provisions on the supply of primary plastic polymers to create the enabling conditions to stop unsustainable production growth in major producing countries and reduce production to sustainable levels. Addressing overproduction for major producers, none of them located in Africa, is an essential condition to enable any other solution throughout the plastics lifecycle. The plastic crisis faced by African countries can only be solved by waste management infrastructure combined with production regulations.
- The instrument must eliminate chemicals that are hazardous to human health and/or the environment through the adoption of specific provisions, operationalizing the precautionary principle, to eliminate groups of problematic chemicals. Protecting human and ecosystem health must be a central aim of the instrument. It is also a crucial requirement to facilitate a non-toxic circular economy.
- Real action means real money: as outlined in the CRP submitted by the African Group at INC-3, a dedicated Multilateral Fund should be the principal international vehicle for providing support to eligible countries for implementing their treaty obligations including direct financial support for implementation as well as robust support for capacity building and technology transfer. The Multilateral Fund should provide support on a grant basis both for enabling activities and for the incremental costs of compliance. A strong framework for means of implementation is pertinent to align ambition of control measures with the financial conditions to implement them. Binding commitments to end plastic pollution should be matched with clear commitments to provide multilateral finance – stable and predictable finance – to support implementation, ensure a just transition, and outline clear requirements to hold polluters to account.
- We need globally binding rules across the full lifecycle of plastics as voluntary industry commitments, a patchwork of national regulations, and ad hoc product bans have failed to stem plastic pollution. Voluntary frameworks in other treaties have also failed to deliver results. The treaty must establish global, harmonised, legally binding rules across the full lifecycle of plastics paired with harmonised, mandatory, and transparent reporting to create a level playing field for all actors.
- All measures taken in regulating the full life cycle of plastics must be seen through a just transition lens for all workers affected by the planned transformative changes in the global plastics economy with recognition of the important role waste pickers and waste workers in cooperative settings play in handling more than 60% of all recycled waste.
In closing, we want to remind the African Ministers of the key commitment outlined in AMCEN Decision 19/2 that called for the “development of an ambitious international legally binding instrument that seeks to end plastic pollution in all environments, brings primary plastic polymer production and consumption to sustainable levels in line with SDG 12 and achieves a safe circular economy protective of human health, the climate system and biodiversity throughout the life cycle of plastics”.
Let us not lose sight of the fact that “Today’s Plastic Production is Tomorrow’s Legacy Waste!”
SIGNATORIES
- Adansonia.green (Senegal)
- AKO Foundation (Ghana)
- Appui aux Initiatives Communautaire de Conservation de l’Environnement et de Développement Durable (AICED, DR Congo)
- Association de l’Education Environnementale pour les Futures Générations (AEEFG, Tunisia)
- Bio Vision Africa (BIVA, Uganda)
- Centre de Recherche et d’Education Pour le Developpement (CREPD, Cameroon)
- Centre for Earth Works (CFEW, Nigeria)
- Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD, Kenya)
- Community Action Against Plastic Waste (CAPws, Nigeria)
- Community Transformation Foundation Network (COTFONE, Uganda)
- Development Indian Ocean Network (DION, Mauritius)
- EcoJustice Ethiopia (Ethiopia)
- End Plastic Pollution Uganda (EPP, Uganda)
- Foundation for Environment and Development (FEDEV, Cameroon)
- Front Commun pour la Protection de l’Environnement et des Espaces Protégés (FCPEEP, DR Congo)
- Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) Africa
- Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO, Ghana)
- Greenish Foundation (Egypt)
- groundWork South Africa (gW, South Africa)
- Kenya National Waste Pickers Welfare Association (KeNaWPWA, Kenya)
- Nipe Fagio (Tanzania)
- Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE, Nigeria)
- Population Development Initiative (PDI, Tanzania) Sustainable Research and Action for Environmental Development (SRADeV, Nigeria)
- Solidarité pour la Protection des Droits de l’Enfant,SOPRODE ASBL en sigle (SOPRODE, DR Congo)
- South African Waste Pickers Association (SAWPA, South Africa)
- Sustainable Environment Development Initiative (SEDI, Nigeria)
- Sustainable Network Egypt (SNE, Egypt)
- Young Volunteers for the Environment Gambia (YVE Gambia)
- Young Volunteers for the Environment Rwanda (Rwanda)
- Zero Waste Durban (South Africa)
- Zero Waste Tunisia (Tunisia)
- Zero Waste Senegal (Senegal)
