Vietnam backs negotiations on global treaty on plastic pollution

An overview of the workshop (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Hanoi (VNA) – As an active and responsible member of the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA), at the regional level, Vietnam strongly supports the negotiations on a global treaty on plastic pollution, an official said on July 26.

The statement was made by Deputy Director of the Vietnam Agency of Seas and Islands (VASI) Truong Tri Duc at a workshop themed “Regional Cooperation towards the Global Treaty on Plastic Pollution” held in Hanoi.

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, Duc stressed.

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.

The workshop, held in the framework of the UNDP-Norway's regional project titled ‘Enabling Plastic Pollution Innovation Challenge" (EPPIC), offered an opportunity for the parties to exchange and share experiences and lessons to promote initiatives to tackle ocean plastic pollution in member countries; and discussed measures to make the best preparations for the process of participating in the negotiations on the treaty, said Duc.

EPPIC workshop themed “Regional Cooperation towards the Global Treaty on Plastic Pollution” (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Ramla Khalidi, Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam, emphasised 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 recognise, support, and increase contributions by informal waste workers to waste management systems and consider how the global treaty could be built basing on these contributions, as informal workers in ASEAN countries have a crucial role to play in waste management.

And the second is that the realisation 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 EPPIC project has created chances for PEMSEA members and non-member countries to discuss and contribute to the treaty negotiations.

Collecting plastic waste along beach (Photo: VietnamPlus)

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./.

VNA