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Let’s start by talking about where we are with climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions and the global average temperature are hitting new highs. Extreme weather events are occurring more often, developing faster and becoming more intense. We all know who suffers the most, and it isn’t those who caused the problem in the first place.
Fossil fuels are the greatest contributor to climate change. They are the slow-acting poison in the veins of our planet and economies. Yes, they jacked us up. Revved us up. Got us moving. Now they are killing us. And still, the addicts that we are, we produce and consume more fossil fuels than the Earth system can take. UNEP’s Production Gap Report 2023 found that the world is planning 110 per cent more fossil fuels in 2030 than is consistent with 1.5°C.
We must end the addiction, including in the plastics industry, because business-as-usual growth in plastics would burn through up to 20 per cent of the carbon budget for 1.5°C by 2040 – mainly from the production of primary polymers and conversion into products. There are other climate implications of plastics. We need healthy ocean and coastal ecosystems to store carbon and build resilience to climate change. Yet 80 per cent of all plastic currently ends up in the oceans, and plastic production is set to triple by 2060. There can be no adaptation in a sea of plastic.
For these reasons and more, member states at UNEA 5.2, passed a resolution calling for an instrument on plastic pollution that is “based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic”. Not an instrument that deals with plastic pollution through recycling or waste management alone – which, if we are being honest, large parts of the fossil fuel and plastic industries would like to see. In fact, Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, earlier this year wrote that some companies are lobbying to undermine the plastic instrument, which has just passed the third round of negotiations.
I am pleased to be sitting here next to H.E. Luis Vayas Valdivieso, Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. My thanks, Luis, for leading this important process. The Chair’s zero draft of the instrument included all the elements we needed. INC-3 considered the draft at length. We now move on to INC-4 in Ottawa next year.
I again urge negotiators to craft a deal that rethinks everything. We need to use fewer virgin polymers, less plastic and no harmful chemicals. We need to ensure that we use, reuse, and recycle resources more efficiently. And dispose safely of what is left over. This is how we protect ecosystems, human health and the climate. Create new jobs. And save trillions in social and economic costs.
I also appeal to the plastic industry to get ahead of the deal by putting its resources and innovation to immediate work. As this drive to sustainability gathers pace, companies that adopt non-plastic substitutes or alternatives or better use of plastic now will win the market share.
And to the fossil fuel industry, I say: plastics are not a lifeboat for you as energy systems decarbonize. The world can’t afford the emissions. And besides, what are you going to do in a lifeboat, except bob around aimlessly while the world changes around you?
The world is ready to break its addiction to both fossil fuels and plastics. There will be withdrawal symptoms. But, once the transition is over, we will all – the private sector included – be happier, healthier and more prosperous.
