Search the SPREP Catalogue

Plastics pollution, including marine litter; is a global social, economic, and environmental emergency requiring urgent attention. Plastics are produced from fossil fuels, and once released into the environment, they never disappear. Instead, they degrade into physical and chemical forms, leading to the contamination of all biophysical systems. If we carry on business-as-usual this will culminate to 1.1 billion tonnes having entered the world’s oceans by 2030

Pacific Islands policy frameworks do not capture the full life cycle of plastics. Yet, plastics emit greenhouse gases and ozone depleting chemicals, create marine litter, shed microplastics, and leach toxic chemicals throughout their full life cycle. For example, Ninety-nine percent of plastics come from fossil fuels, and plastics production is estimated to produce > 400 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per year. This figure does not include emissions from waste management (including transport), mismanagement, and degradation of plastic products. Plastics pollution, including marine litter, magnifies climate impacts in the Pacific region and threatens the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Despite the known environmental and human health harm of plastics, the Pacific Islands are under tremendous pressure to continue to import plastic products, to meet the high consumption expectations of tourists, and to manufacture plastics domestically. Current legal and policy frameworks in the region either exclude or include limited trade-related provisions, production, manufacturing, importation, packaging and end-of-life standards, and technical regulations for plastics, persistent organic pollutants and chemical activities.

Most of these species have distribution and migratory pathways that extend across the Pacific. Conservation challenges wide range of threats including from fisheries, marine pollution, poor land management affecting coastal habitats, climate change and emerging threats such ad the potential impacts form deep sea mining

A healthy Pacific ocean with thriving populations of whales, dolphins, marine turtles, dugongs, sharks and rays, and seabirds and the associated ecosystems on which they depend, which assures the aspirations of Pacific island peoples and protects their natural and cultural heritage.

A healthy Pacific ocean with thriving populations of whales, dolphins, marine turtles, dugongs, sharks and rays and seabirds and the associated ecosystems on which they depend, which assures the aspirations of Pacific island protects their natural and cultural heritage.