175 countries have unanimously adopted a resolution that calls for the enactment of a legally binding global treaty to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution.
The development emerged on Wednesday at the final day of the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) that was held in Nairobi, Kenya.
Over 3,400 representatives attended the session in person and 1,500 joined it virtually. The three-day session agreed to support a legally binding treaty to free the world from plastic pollution.
While the assembly hall erupted into cheers after the passage of the resolution, Espen Barthe Eide, the outgoing UNEA Chairperson and Norway’s Climate and Environment Minister hailed the resolution as a historic moment.
The development is being termed as the most significant environmental deal since the 2015 Paris Agreement, which called for limiting the global temperature rise in this century to 1.5°C by cutting the total emissions by half by 2030.
The resolution was collectively tabled by Rwanda, Peru, Japan, and India. In addition to deliberating on the historic resolution, the three-day UNEA session discussed other challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss.
Besides, the UNEA immediately convened another two-day session to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) that was established in 1972 for coordinating responses to global environmental issues.
