India, France commit to eliminate single use plastic products pollution

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India and France have committed to eliminate single-use plastic products pollution and progressively reduce and eliminate consumption and production of certain single-use plastic products, according to a release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Pollution due to littered and mismanaged plastic waste is a global environmental issue that must be urgently addressed. It has adverse impacts on ecosystems in general and marine ecosystems in particular.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) defines single-use plastic products as “an umbrella term for different types of products that are typically used once before being thrown away or recycled”, which include food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups, cutlery, and shopping bags.

Progress has been made to tackle plastic pollution on a global scale. Noticeable actions include the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants, amendments of the annexes to the Basel Convention to address the issue of transboundary movement of plastic waste, the marine litter action plans under the regional seas conventions, and the International Marine Organization (IMO) action plan for marine litter from ships, according to the MEA release.

A series of UNEA resolutions since 2014 have also addressed the challenge and an ad-hoc open-ended expert group on marine litter (AHEG) was established in 2017 by UNEA3 to identify potential solutions. It concluded its work on 13 November 2020 detailing a number of response options, including the development of “definitions of unnecessary and avoidable use of plastic, including single-use plastic”.

As per the MEA release, there is a need to decrease specifically, India, and France’s consumption of single-use plastic products and to consider alternative solutions. Single-use plastic products, with low utility and high littering potential, should be phased out and replaced by reusable products based on a circular economy approach.
Meanwhile, India and France have also agreed to enhance cooperation in strategic areas, space, science, sustainable development, and cooperation at the institutional level. Various agreements were made between the two countries during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to France from July 13-14.

In the area of strategic cooperation, an agreement was signed between Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Total Energies Gas and Power Ltd (Total Energies) to establish a long-term LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA).
In the area of scientific cooperation, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Chennai, and Instiut Français de Recherche pour l’exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) on collaborative research projects including in the area of Deep Ocean Mission, exchange of scientific and technical expertise. (ANI)