Addressing a Hanoi workshop to look into regional cooperation towards a global treaty on plastic pollution, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Agency of Seas and Islands (VASI) Truong Tri Duc also said the Vietnamese Government always attaches importance to the protection of maritime and insular environment, especially the issues related to marine biodiversity conservation, maritime and coastal environment, plastic waste, and marine plastic pollution.
This is also part of the efforts to promote sustainable development of sea-based economic activities, the official told the event that drew representatives of 11 PEMSEA members as well as non-member countries.
Stressing Vietnam’s support for the negotiations on a global treaty on plastic pollution, he added that once adopted, the deal will be a vivid demonstration of countries’ cooperation in dealing with pollution in general and plastic pollution in particular.
Ramla Khalidi, Resident Representative of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) in Vietnam, emphasized the core role of cooperation in resolving the worsening plastic pollution.
Highlighting two important aspects of the fight against plastic pollution, she said the first is to recognize, support, and increase contribution by informal waste workers to waste management systems and consider how the global treaty could be built basing on these contribution, as informal workers in ASEAN countries have a crucial role to play in waste management.
And the second is that the realization of the treaty’s ambitious goals will require sufficient financial sources, especially through innovative financing mechanisms, to ensure efforts are fully supported to make changes in reality, Khalidi went on.
Mette Moglestue, deputy head of Mission of the Norwegian Embassy in Vietnam, said the Norwegian-funded Ending Plastic Pollution Innovation Challenge (EPPIC) project has created chances for PEMSEA members and non-member countries to discuss and contribute to the treaty negotiations.
The diplomat noted one important thing is that the parties concerned need to agree on different measures for handling the entire life cycle of plastics, from production, design to waste management. Another is that the treaty must include legally binding obligations to help effectively minimise plastic pollution.
The EPPIC, funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, has invited innovators from across ASEAN to share their breakthrough ideas to deal with plastic pollution. It was launched in Vietnam and Thailand in 2021 and then expanded to Indonesia and the Philippines in 2022, and Laos and Cambodia this year.
At the workshop, participants agreed on the importance of joint efforts to combat plastic pollution. A common document was also devised to draft a cooperation strategy for handling this problems, helping with the building of a global treaty on plastic pollution.
Source: VNA