India, France want legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution

Paris: India and France on Friday said they will constructively engage other like-minded countries to strengthen the negotiations for an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.

After talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron here, the two countries made a joint commitment to eliminate single-use plastic products pollution, including a ban on single-use plastic products which have low utility and high littering potential.

Noting that plastic product pollution due to littered and mismanaged plastic waste is a global environmental issue that must be urgently addressed, India and France said it has adverse impacts on ecosystems in general and marine ecosystems in particular.

Single-use plastic products are defined by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) as "an umbrella term for different types of products that are typically used once before being thrown away or recycled", which include food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups, cutlery and shopping bags.

In a joint document expressing commitment to eliminate single-use plastic product pollution, the two countries said progress has been made to tackle plastic pollution at a global scale.

"Noticeable actions include the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants, amendments of the annexes to the Basel Convention to address the issue of transboundary movement of plastic waste, the marine litter action plans under the regional seas conventions, and the International Marine Organization (IMO) action plan for marine litter from ships," the document noted.

A series of UNEA resolutions since 2014 have also addressed the challenge and an ad-hoc open-ended expert group on marine litter (AHEG) was established in 2017 by UNEA3 to identify potential solutions.

It concluded its work on November 13, 2020, detailing several response options, including the development of "definitions of unnecessary and avoidable use of plastic, including single-use plastic".

There is, therefore, a need to decrease specifically our consumption of single-use plastic products and to consider alternative solutions, the two sides said.

In March 2019, the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-4), adopted a resolution on "Addressing Single-use plastic products pollution" which "encourages member states to take actions, as appropriate, to promote the identification and development of environmentally friendly alternatives to single-use plastic products, taking into account the full life cycle implications of those alternatives", the document said.

The two countries said that single-use plastic products, with low utility and high littering potential, should be phased out and replaced by reusable products based on a circular economy approach.

Solutions exist and have been clearly identified and tackling this issue can bring new opportunities for innovation, competitiveness and job creation, they said.

India and France said solutions include a ban on identified single-use plastic items where alternatives are readily available and affordable; extended producer responsibility (EPR) so that producers are responsible for environmentally sound waste management; promoting reuse, prescribe minimum level of recycling of plastic packaging waste, use of recycled plastic content; Checking/monitoring the compliance of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR); Incentives to help producers design alternatives to single-use plastics; Labelling requirements indicating how waste should be disposed; and awareness-raising measures.

France and India renewed their commitment to progressively reduce and eliminate the consumption and production of certain single-use plastic products and cited several steps they have taken to reduce plastic pollution.