On World Environment Day 2023, ECLAC emphasizes the need to seek informed and participatory solutions to address plastic pollution

This June 5, 2023, World Environment Day, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) joins the call for global action against plastic pollution. The triple planetary crisis -climate, loss of biodiversity and pollution- reminds us of the importance of prioritizing low-carbon solutions that reduce waste and promote a circular economy, underlined in a press release the institution with headquarters in Santiago de Chili.

Moving towards a circular economy that addresses the complete life cycle of products and materials, reducing their use or promoting more efficient use, poses profound changes in the way in which it is produced and consumed. It is necessary to optimize resources, promote technological innovation and promote new business models that allow value to be created in a sustainable manner. Better waste management, its recovery and recycling offer important co-benefits in the fight against pollution, including that produced by plastics, indicates the regional organization of the United Nations.

The negotiation of the new international environmental agreement on plastic pollution is a new example of how multilateral cooperation can face global challenges and offer paths to move towards more sustainable economies, ECLAC highlights.

Latin America and the Caribbean has an important guide to advance in this transition: the Escazú Agreement. By ensuring the right of present and future generations to a healthy environment and sustainable development through access to information, participation and justice, this first environmental treaty in the region lays the foundations for changes in production patterns and consumption that put people and nature at the center, maintains the regional commission.

“Our prosperity and well-being depend on the health of our planet. We must speed up the transition towards more productive, inclusive and sustainable societies that reduce our environmental footprint and accelerate the circular economy as a cross-sectoral strategy for sustainable development,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC. “The Escazú Agreement -says he- shows us the way, offering tools to design environmentally sustainable collective actions that involve all the actors of our society.”

To commemorate this day and contribute to informed decision-making on the matter in the region, ECLAC has launched: 1) a renewed version of its Observatory of Principle 10 in Latin America and the Caribbean, which contains laws, policies and resources of interest in environmental matters; 2) the experimental System for Satellite Monitoring of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), a free access web portal that provides information on trends in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the countries of the region, its main cities and subregions ; and 3) the tool NDC LAC which allows viewing information on the progress in the implementation and updating of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in Latin America and the Caribbean.

It is time to achieve a world #WithoutPlasticPollution, stresses ECLAC.