A group of 160 financial companies on Friday urged governments to agree on a treaty to end plastic pollution, which would enable them to make more informed lending and investment decisions, ahead of a UN meeting in Canada.
The fourth meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-4) is due to be held in Ottawa next week. The purpose of the meeting is to lay the groundwork for an eventual international agreement that would curtail plastic before the end of the year.
Curtailing the estimated 400 million metric tons of waste produced every year is a crucial part of efforts to protect biodiversity. Microplastics are found everywhere, from the mountainous Himalayas to staple foods and even human blood.
The group including ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Handelsbanken, and BNP Paribas’s asset management business proposed several measures, such as a treaty that facilitates the alignment of public and private finance to eradicate plastic pollution, similar to the Paris Climate Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework.
Read more: World leader urge nations to ratify UN Ocean treaty
Additionally, they advocated for companies to assess and disclose plastic-related risks and opportunities, more explicit plastic-related policies and targets from governments in areas like waste creation and recycling, and for further private investment to end plastic pollution.
“A clear transition pathway laid out in the Treaty will help leverage finance at scale for this massive task of ending plastic pollution worldwide,” said Anne-Sophie Castelnau, global head of sustainability at ING, one of the signatories.
In January, the World Bank issued a $100 million bond to finance plastic-reduction projects in Ghana and Indonesia. Investors will be paid a rate linked to plastic removal credits generated by the projects.