Weekly Action - 29 May 2023 - UN Plastic Negotiations
UN plastic negotiations
This week Paris is hosting UN ‘INC2’ negotiations for a new global treaty to reduce and end plastic pollution. Plastic pollution is a huge issue around the world. Marine plastics are having a devastating impact on ecosystems. In developing countries 2 billion people have no access to proper waste management systems and are left with no choice but to dump, burn or bury plastic waste – none of which are good options, and all of which have huge negative environmental and health impacts.[1] A friend of Arise, Amir in Nepal, reports how the river near his home, which he used to walk or run alongside, is now clogged with plastic waste – it is ugly, unhealthy and creates a huge flood risk for hundreds of homes.
Caring for creation
As Christians we know that God’s beautiful creation belongs to him, not us. As the Psalms tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24: 1). Furthermore, we read in Genesis that rather than polluting God’s creation with our plastic waste we have instead been instructed to “take care of it” (Gen 2: 15). Our current linear economic model uses polluting methods to extract, consume, and then discard natural resources faster than the planet can replenish them. We must shift to what experts call a circular economy. Just as God designed his creation so nothing is wasted in nature but gets broken down and reused in the biosphere, a circular economy would eliminate all pollution, overconsumption and waste and push resources back around the economy in a circular fashion, moving us back into balance with creation as God intended. Arise’s 4 Shifts Campaign calls for a shift to a circular economy as a key part of rewiring of our global economy to be green and fair, so it still creates the jobs and wealth that lift people out of poverty, but does so without relying on fossil fuels and overconsumption which is wrecking our planet.
A global circular economy law
UN plastic negotiations are a good start to reduce the scourge of plastic waste, but they don’t go far enough. Even if successful they will leave untouched many other areas of waste, pollution and environmental crisis, which the world must urgently address. The governments of the world should increase their ambition and negotiate a new global circular economy law. This new global treaty should revise, strengthen and incorporate the existing global agreements on the environment (including the current plastics negotiations) into a single global agreement on the circular economy. Specifically this law should ban all polluting activity, further human expansion into wild lands, the production of natural resources that takes out more than it puts back in, and all waste (including plastic waste). It should also prevent invasive species, and invest in conservation, re-wilding and reforestation programmes. This law should be implemented in every nation.
Will you take action as part of Arise’s 4 Shifts campaign this week and call for a global circular economy law?
Take Action
Speak out in advocacy
Go and visit your MP at one of their local surgery drop in times. You can find your MP, and contact details for their local constituency office here. Their local constituency office can tell you when their drop in times are. Ask your MP to urge the government to take urgent action to:
· Shift the UK and the world from overconsumption and waste to the circular economy, by urging the government to call for a global circular economy law. This law should ban polluting activity, further human expansion into wild lands, the production of natural resources that takes out more than it puts back in, and all waste, in order to trigger the shift to a circular economy. Urge them to also bring in a UK national circular economy law to implement it here in Britain.
Pray
Pray for dramatic progress on tackling plastic pollution around the world. Pray that the use of non-recyclable plastics will be banned, all plastic waste cleaned up and future plastic waste eliminated. Pray that a global circular economy law will be brought in to extend this to all forms of pollution and unsustainable production.
Give
Give to Christian organisations like Tearfund, or secular organisations like the World Wildlife Fund, that are doing crucial work helping to provide proper waste management services in developing countries and clearing up plastic pollution on land and in the oceans.
Ethical Consumption
Avoid purchasing plastic as much as possible. Buy products that don’t use plastic packaging, and use a reusable water bottle rather than buying plastic bottled drinks.
Practical Action
If you are from outside of the UK, help spread the message further by getting in touch with us at info@ariseuk.org and letting us know if you would be interested in helping set up a branch of Arise in your country.
Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Find out more
It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together. Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area. If you are already in an Arise group, take this action to your wider church, and get them all to do it too.
Find out more about why the world needs 4 Shifts to transition to a green and fair global economy in Arise’s 4 Shifts Report, and how this forms part of God’s bigger vision for our world in the Arise Manifesto.
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[1] Rubbish Campaign, Tearfund, https://www.tearfund.org/campaigns/rubbish-campaign