UN Climate Change News, 6 March 2024 According to experts meeting at the sixth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) in Nairobi last week, a transformation of the global economy is urgently needed to curb existential threats to nature and human kind caused by plastics.
The production and use of plastics has grown exponentially over the past decades, with extensive consequences andcosts for the environment, both marine and terrestrial, human health and theclimate.
Not only is plastic waste contaminating food, water and the oceans, with plastic litter making up 85% of marine waste; the production, use and waste management of plastics also generates about 4% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
The plastics industry is the fastest-growing source of industrial greenhouse gases in the world. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the plastics lifecycle could be responsible for as much as 19% of global greenhouse emissions by 2040.
Given the limited carbon budgetavailable, this would put the central Paris Agreement goal of holding globalaverage temperature rise under 1.5 degrees Celsius out of reach.
Circular economy and policy action are crucial to reduce plastic waste
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