Maldives joins talks on global plastics treaty
The talks are set to include thirteen small island states including Fiji, Maldives, and the Republic of Palau.
Maldives joins a collection of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) meeting in Bangkok this week to discuss the fine print of the Global Plastics Treaty.
The talks are set to include thirteen small island states including Fiji, Maldives, and the Republic of Palau.
They will meet at the Economist Impact’s Global Plastics Summit in Bangkok in a workshop moderated by the social enterprise Common Seas.
Aminath Shauna, Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology of the Maldives, will join fellow government officials from SIDS to discuss how the policies outlined in the draft treaty can be applied to reduce plastic pollution in small island developing states.
Topics will include refill and reuse schemes, and extended producer responsibility for plastic producers.
The talks will be a vital opportunity for SIDS to meet ahead of November’s third round of negotiations on the detail of the UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution.
Small developing island states are vitally important members of the international community and represent some 20 percent of UN member states.
"Small Island Developing States are the pioneers of solutions to radically reduce plastics use," Common Seas CEO Jo Royle said.
"Economist Impact’s Global Plastics Summit is a vital opportunity to prepare, to enable us to deliver meaningful progress at the third round of negotiations on the UN plastics treaty in November. I am looking forward to working with leaders from across the Ocean Nations to co-design solutions that reduce plastic consumption and waste.”
Common Seas is working with the Global Plastics Policy Centre at the University of Portsmouth to deliver the workshop and an accompanying guide to plastics policies in small island states.
"This workshop presents a strong collaboration, bringing together the contextual on the ground knowledge of Common Seas with the technical policy and governance expertise of the Global Plastics Policy Centre. We are delighted to be working together to help identify pathways through which SIDS can apply unique, innovative and progressive plastics policy approaches in line with the requirements of the global plastics treaty," Professor Steve Fletcher, Director of the Global Plastic Policy Centre at the University of Portsmouth, said.
