Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th session of the General Assembly
—-
World Environment Day Commemoration
(As delivered)
Mr. Chairman,
Madame President,
Assistant Secretary-General Noronha,
Director of the FAO Liaison Office, Mr. Guangzhou Qu,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you indeed for offering me this opportunity to share some ideas with you.
And many thanks to Côte d’Ivoire not only for organizing and leading this event but leading a global drive – what to do and how to do – plastic pollution.
Côte d’Ivoire banned the plastic bag nearly a decade ago. My congratulations.
Abidjan is now a hub for plastic collection and recovery.
When it comes to plastic, nothing short of a radical transformation is required.
And Côte d’Ivoire is helping to lead the way.
I think we have a good deal to learn from you.
As we heard, plastics were extremely useful tools for our development for decades, since the 1950s.
Because they were cheap, they were light, they were accessible and versatile, and they made economies grow.
But as we heard from the UNEP President, we’ve also reached a level where plastics, particularly microplastics, are choking our planet.
Microplastics and nanoplastics are in our soil, our waters, in our bodies – in our bodies, in our blood vessels, in our brain tissues.
They are present in our oceans and very high up, in the stratosphere.
So basically this means that we changed the environment.
We didn’t want that.
We wanted to use the benefits of plastics but we did not pay enough attention to this side effect and now we have the results.
By last count, there were an estimated 51 TRILLION microplastic particles in our ocean. That’s 500 times more than there are stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
A pernicious hallmark of our Anthropocene era. It’s a new age.
The world produces 430 million metric tonnes of plastic each year. And if things don’t change, continue “business as usual”, production is set to triple by 2060.
Unless we take aggressive action against plastic pollution, the transformative promise of our 2030 Agenda will remain just that.
To tackle the problem of waste, we need the entire lifecycle approach, as we heard already from the two video interventions. Including plastic waste.
There are no physical laws that would prevent us from reusing plastics by 300 per cent – that means reusing plastic three at least, as science stands today.
But for that, we need to depart from a “throw away” culture to a more circular economy.
One that relies steadfastly on science – from data collection and policy making to the implementation of best practice.
In this line, this past March, the General Assembly held a high-level meeting on Zero Waste as a transformation solution in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Once again, I want to congratulate the countries that initiated that initiative and would like to invite all countries to implement all objectives pursuant to this resolution.
I applaud the historic decision of the 2022 UN Environment Assembly to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution by 2024.
Also have to acknowledge that this this is one of the shortest timeframes ever agreed and a strong sign that Governments are serious about solutions.
The shortest timeframe, but actually the timeframe available for us is the shortest in the time of history to change the course of history.
I trust that political leaders will now show the maximum solidarity and flexibility to complete the process on time.
I also welcome UNEA’s agreement to create a science policy panel on chemicals and waste – another truly history making move.
I truly hope that it will be completed, it will be done and it will be operational very soon.
This platform will bridge a critical gap, enabling scientists and policymakers to inform each other on effective ways to manage chemicals and waste and prevent pollution.
Because preventing is always much cheaper than mitigating effects of pollution that are already taking place already.
Importantly, it will complement existing science-policy platforms on climate change and biodiversity at the IPCC – rounding out the scientific picture on all three aspects of our triple planetary crisis.
So I am trying to tell you that we are still having a missing link on the scientific support in the sustainability transformation.
I would like to see that science policy interface up and running as early as possible.
As with all things worth doing, funding will be the key.
I trust that sufficient resources will be provided to ensure this mechanism operates at the pace and scale needed to meet the challenge.
Today it may look – and it does look – like a very costly project to reduce plastic pollution.
But when we learn how to define the measurement of sustainability development and apply what we call today going Beyond GDP, it will reveal how much net values we will create by then.
As we bump up against planetary boundaries, less bad is simply not good enough.
Now is the time for Governments, cities, businesses and other organizations to unite around a just transition to a circular economy for plastic.
To consider total impacts of production and consumption decisions.
To drive a broader systems changes and to operate for the long-term benefit of the world’s 8 billion people.
I thank you very much indeed for this opportunity.
I’m very much looking forward to your deliberations. And I’m absolutely looking forward to the results of the processes launched by UNEP and UNEA.
You have my full support.
Thank you.
