Opinion | China can be the unifier the world needs to tackle environmental crisis
- As a rising power in global governance and an advocate of multilateralism, China is well placed to be a driving force in lead global environmental management
With multilateralism under threat and global governance reform deadlocked, the Osaka Declaration was a major breakthrough. It shows that, despite current tensions around trade and technology, environmental issues can provide a common ground to revive multilateralism.
Indeed, nothing shows the need for global cooperation more than environmental threats. Rivers, oceans and pollution meander across national boundaries. Too often, cooperation does not. Rich or poor, no country can escape environmental issues or tackle them alone.
Since the 1950s, humans have produced about 830 million tonnes of plastic, of which nearly 80 per cent has gone into landfills or the natural environment, according to estimates by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Microplastic particles are a particular concern, absorbing large amounts of bacteria before being ingested by marine animals and eventually ending up in the human food chain.
As well as threatening biodiversity and human health, plastic waste hurts the marine economy, which supports millions of people around the world in fishing, tourism and related industries. Some countries and localities have introduced rules to combat plastic waste, but with the world’s oceans all connected, local efforts are futile without coordinated global action.