In Nairobi this month, the world\u2019s governments will discuss the path towards the first global treaty to tackle plastic pollution. But with multiple proposals on the table, the scope and ambition of a future treaty hangs in the balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UN Environment Assembly<\/a>, which is scheduled for 28 February to 2 March in the Kenyan capital, could deliver a mandate for an intergovernmental negotiating committee to broker an agreement obliging all countries to eliminate plastic leakage \u2013 especially into the ocean \u2013 through national targets and plans for reduction, recycling and management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s an incomprehensible amount of plastic in the ocean<\/a> \u2013 up to 51 trillion<\/a> fragments in surface waters alone. Marine plastic pollution harms animals, which ingest or become entangled in it, while the risk to humans who eat seafood contaminated with it is still unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n