South Africa has pledged to support the United Nations global campaign to eliminate major sources of marine litter such as plastics.
According to the UN Environment Agency, more than eight-million tonnes of plastic leaks into the ocean every year.
The campaign was launched at the Economist World Ocean Summit in Bali, Indonesia recently; the #Clean-Seas campaign is urging governments to pass plastic reduction policies.
South Africa and Cameroon are the latest to declare a tax on plastic bags.
Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa will represent South Africa at the UN political forum on sustainable development in New York.
“I had my team coming from the Antarctica a year ago and they showed me samples of the plastics that have reached that part of the world and the oceans and it looked very scary. If we don’t do anything about this half of the oceans will be full of plastics. Oceans are a source of life and if we let the plastics go in the oceans and land that’s a big problem. We are working hard around that as well, “says Molewa.
The implementation of measures to mitigate the negative impact of climate change and government’s efforts to protect biodiversity will be assessed during the United Nations high-level ministerial meeting in New York.
Molewa says, “The mission to New York is about the meeting to evaluate how we are performing in implementing sustainable development goals. Bio-diversity of the oceans and land is extremely important. So it’s important that sustainable development goals are adhered to and implemented and that’s what we are going to evaluate there.”
