Ecuador proposes hosting conference for global agreement on plastic pollution

QUITO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso proposed Tuesday that Ecuador host the 2025 Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on Plastic Pollution Treaty.

According to Ecuador's General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency, the president, who is attending this year's World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos, made the announcement at the bilateral panel "Defeating pollution by plastics," also participated by President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset.

Lasso said at the panel that his government is committed to the reduction of marine plastic waste at a national and regional level, and that it has carried out actions such as enacting the Organic Law for the Rationalization, Reuse and Recycling of Single-use Plastics and the ban on the importation of plastic waste.

"It is a pleasure to be present in Davos to share a common commitment: to end plastic pollution. Ecuador and Switzerland agree that in the face of a global environmental and health problem, we must take joint actions among the entire international community," Lasso wrote on Twitter the same day.

In March 2022, the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly adopted a resolution titled "End plastic pollution: Towards an internationally legally binding instrument."

The historic resolution established an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.

The INC has begun its work since last November in Punta del Este, Uruguay with the aim of finalizing a global legally binding agreement by 2024. The diplomatic conference will be held after the INC concludes its work.

The Ecuadoran president also announced that Ecuador will chair the INC from December 2023 until its completion.