Nordic Ministerial Declaration on a global agreement on plastic pollution and ambitions for UNEA 5.2

03.11.21 | Declaration
plastic bucket toy sea water
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Sharon McCutcheon, Unsplash.com
The Nordic Ministerial Declaration on a global agreement on plastic pollution and ambitions for UNEA 5.2 was adopted on November 3rd 2021 by the Nordic Ministers of Environment and Climate.

Information

Adopted
03.11.2021
Location
Copenhagen

We, the Nordic Ministers of Environment and Climate:

 

Deeply concerned about the growing plastic pollution threat to the environment and recognize the urgency and magnitude of the problem,

 

Underline the need to further develop effective solutions in the long term, while at the same time enhance implementation of existing commitments,

 

Welcome the updated global assessment report "From Pollution to Solution: A Global Assessment of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution" presented by UNEP on 21 October 2021,

 

Stress the need to take decisive steps to reduce plastic pollution levels and prevent further discharges into the environment,

 

Reaffirm our commitment to SDG 14.1 and to the United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 3/7 and its long-term ambition of eliminating discharges of plastic litter and microplastics into the oceans to avoid detriment to marine ecosystems and to human activities dependent on them,

 

Note with appreciation the Chair's Summary and the report of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Expert Group, established by UNEA resolution 3/7 and further extended by UNEA resolution 4/6,

 

Welcome the growing number of countries expressing their support for a new global agreement on plastic pollution at the Ministerial Conference on Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution, generously hosted by Germany, Ghana, Ecuador and Vietnam on 1-2 September,

 

Welcome the support for a new global agreement from regional seas conventions and note with appreciation that the ministers of the OSPAR contracting parties committed to support a global agreement in the Cascais Declaration of 1st October,

 

Underline that further international cooperation is needed, and that a legally binding global agreement on plastic pollution is the most effective solution to prevent and reduce plastic pollution,

 

Recognize that the resumed session of the Fifth United Nations Environment Assembly provides a unique opportunity to decide to launch negotiations towards a legally binding agreement,

 

Supports the draft resolution put forward by Peru and Rwanda requesting the Executive Director to convene an intergovernmental negotiating committee under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Assembly with the mandate to prepare a legally binding global agreement on plastic pollution, commencing in 2022 with the goal of completing its work by the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly,

 

Call for a circular plastics economy, in which products and materials are designed so that they can be reused, prepared for re-use or recycled and thereby contribute significantly to more sustainable consumption and production and to reduce of the global environmental impacts of plastics,

 

Commit to developing a new global agreement, taking a comprehensive approach to plastics across the entire life-cycle, with a common global goal, that includes mechanisms to engage governments, the private sector and relevant stakeholders, and a mechanism to monitor progress,

 

Agree to continue informing global decision-making processes in preparation of a global agreement by providing input through Nordic reports and similar,

 

Reaffirm our commitment, in our roles as political leaders, to work towards an ambitious global agreement on plastic pollution,

 

Call on all Members States of the United Nations to support a decision to launch negotiations on a new global agreement on plastic pollution at the Fifth United Nations Environment Assembly at its resumed session in February/March 2022, and for UNEP to support this process,

 

Commit to support an Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee established by the resumed session of UNEA 5.

 

Copenhagen November 3rd 2021

Signed by

 

Krista Mikkonen, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Finland

 

Lea Wermelin, Minister for Environment, Denmark

 

Per Bolund, Minister for Environment and Climate and Deputy Prime Minister, Sweden

 

Espen Barth Eide, Minister of Climate and Environment, Norway

 

Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, Minister for the Enviroment and Natural Resources, Iceland

 

Magnus Rasmussen, Minister of Environment, Industry and Trade, Faroe Islands

 

Alfons Röblom, Minister of Development, Åland

 

Kalistat Lund, Minister for Agriculture, Self-Sufficiency, Energy and Environment, Greenland