Pacific Leaders support for High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution
Given the negative impact of plastic pollution on Pacific communities, Pacific Leaders at the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum Meeting in the Cook Islands last year encouraged members to join the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, and continued to support the involvement in the ongoing sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.
The Leaders Communique followed the launch of the Pacific Partnerships for Prosperity (PPFP), designed to catalyse the implementation of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent by ensuring that its Implementation Plan is well supported politically and financially to deliver on its goals and outcomes.
One of the PPFP Initiatives supports the Pacific’s journey towards a Global Plastics Treaty, noting that Pacific leaders are concerned about the environmental, social, cultural, economic, health and food security impacts of plastic pollution addressed nationally and internationally.
The PPFP noted that it would be advantageous for the PIFLM52 to endorse the High Ambition Coalition and become Members of the Coalition.
This call was also reflected in the SPREP Environment Ministers and High-Level Representatives Talanoa Communique 2023, which encouraged all Pacific countries to play a proactive role in the current negotiations and to consider joining the HAC.
This week, as fourteen Pacific countries advocating for the priorities of their communities at the INC gather in Auckland to strategise ahead of the INC-4 in Ottawa, Canada, the progress made since the call from Pacific leaders has been noted.
Since the Cook Islands last year, the Solomon Islands has become the newest member of the HAC, with the invitation for more Pacific countries to join.
“Our Pacific leaders have set the direction for the region and the importance of that stems from the fact that as Pacific nations we are disproportionately impacted by plastics,” the Permanent Secretary of Solomon Islands Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology (MECDM), Dr. Melchior Mataki said.
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SPREP