Environment and Climate Change Canada announced Thursday the country will host a UN event next week for a global solution to end plastic pollution.
The event, the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), will be held in the capital city of Ottawa from April 23 to April 29 to advance the development of a global agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024, the ministry said in a news release.
INC-4 is the fourth negotiating session of five sessions being coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), representing the penultimate moment to unite the world around a shared goal to end plastic pollution, the release said.
Negotiation sessions will start on April 23, where countries will continue to work through the possible scope, wording, and mechanisms, including financial tools, to include in the new legally binding treaty on plastic pollution. No final agreement is anticipated at INC-4, according to the release.
However, it is the critical point to build the foundations for a successful conclusion to the negotiations at INC-5 in the Republic of Korea later this year, the release added.
In 2022, UN member states agreed at the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly to establish the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee with the mandate to develop a legally binding global agreement on plastic pollution by the end of 2024.
According to the UNEP, under a business-as-usual scenario and in the absence of necessary interventions, the amount of plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could nearly triple from some 9-14 million tonnes per year in 2016 to a projected 23-37 million tons per year by 2040.
The fifth and final planned INC session (INC-5) will take place from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, 2024, in Busan, Republic of Korea.
