The G7 states have committed to ending plastic pollution by 2040, reducing additional plastic pollution to zero by that deadline. In a communique released following the G7 ministers' meeting on climate, energy and environment, which took place over the weekend in Sapporo, Japan, the intergovernmental forum's members said they were "determined to continue and step up our actions based on a comprehensive lifecycle approach, promoting sustainable consumption and production of plastics, increasing their circularity in the economy and environmentally sound management of waste".
The 2040 target is broader in scope and more ambitious than those adopted in previous agreements, among them a G20 pledge made in 2019 to eliminate additional marine plastic litter by 2050. The Ocean Plastics Charter drafted at the G7 meeting in 2018 was not signed by either Japan or the United States. Those two G7 countries are also its only members not to have signed onto the "High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution" (HAC), which already came out in support of a 2040 deadline for ending plastic pollution.
Read the full article, including our coverage of the measures to be taken and the G7's commitment to international recycling and recovery of critical raw materials....
