By Bisola Adeyemo
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Thursday assured Kenya President a joint forces against ocean plastic pollution at the UN Environmental Assembly next year.
Blinken make this comment during the UN Environmental Programme’s headquarters in Nairobi on Thursday, africanews said.
While speaking during the programme with other stakeholders, Blinken said the United States – Washington will push for a global agreement to “combat ocean plastic pollution”
“So today, we’re stepping up, stepping up our efforts to tackle another pollutant that threatens our planet — plastic — by announcing the United States’ support for multilateral negotiations on a global agreement to combat ocean plastic pollution by launching these negotiations at the UN Environmental Assembly February 2022, our goal is to create a tool that we can use to protect our oceans and all the lives that they sustain from the growing global harm of plastic pollution,” Blinken said.
According to the UN figure on the plastic waste impact on aquatics life, about eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans each year, killing or injuring one million birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals.
Blinken’s statement is the latest US effort to ramp up environmental protection under President Joe Biden, who has made the fight against climate change a key domestic priority.
He further appealed for the preservation of democracy in politically and ethnically fractured societies citing the worsening crises in Ethiopia and Sudan.
