G-7 Likely to Agree on Fight against Marine Plastic Waste

September 20, 2018

Halifax, Canada- At a three-day meeting that kicked off on Wednesday, environment ministers from the Group of Seven major industrial nations are expected to agree on stepped-up cooperation in tackling ocean plastic waste.

On the first day of the meeting in Halifax, eastern Canada, the ministers from the seven countries--Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States--plus the European Union discussed mainly measures to curb global warming.

On Thursday, the participants are slated to hold in-depth talks on the issue of marine plastic waste, which is becoming an increasingly serious challenge across the globe.

After the first-day session, Japanese Environment Minister Masaharu Nakagawa told reporters that the G-7 nations want the issue to be discussed also by the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies so that a substantive agreement will be reached.

Japan is set to host next year's G-20 gatherings.

The Ocean Plastics Charter, including numerical targets and deadlines for the goals to be met, was proposed at the G-7 summit in Charlevoix in Canada in June this year.

But Japan refrained from signing the document due to what it claimed was the lack of time for discussions with the industrial sector. The United States also failed to sign the charter.

At a press conference after Wednesday's meeting, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna underscored the significance of the Ocean Plastics Charter.

The Japanese government plans to compile a plastics recycling strategy taking into account the essence of the charter by the time the G-20 economies hold a summit in Osaka, western Japan, in June 2019.

It is important to spread the G-7's efforts to the G-20, Nakagawa said. The G-20 members include the G-7 nations, China, India, Russia and the EU. Jiji Press