Recently, my sister Zara and I attended the fourth session of the International Negotiating Committee for a Global Plastics Treaty (INC-4) in Ottawa, Canada. As two of the four under eighteens at the whole event, we were there to spread the voice of the youth and of plankton, which produces half the oxygen on Earth and is the base of the food chain. There still is not substantial research into the effects that plastic pollution may have on phyto and zooplankton. (See our video ‘little things’ to learn more)
As the youngest person attending INC-4 at 13 yrs, I was welcomed into many conversations with adults, as they were keen to hear directly from the youth, which is usually rare at these events. At first it seemed that the negotiations were slow, with many oil-producing countries flat out stalling. In the end, there was some progress made on the treaty, and I am optimistic that and strong Global Plastics Treaty is possible by INC-5 in November.
We attended INC-4 with fellow Planeteers Dejea Lyons and Diego Arreola Fernández, and took part in a great side event Planeteer Alliance hosted on youth inclusion in the treaty. It was very successful, with some meaningful contacts made with other youth mostly from African countries!
('The Tap' pictured left with Robin Okunowo (Planeteer Alliance), Ben Von Wong (artist), Diego and Dejea)
During our time at INC-4, we met with nation representatives from the US, UK and Fiji, where we talked about problems and discussed solutions to plastics and the youth voice.There were many amazing highlights at INC-4, in fact too many to list. I would love to thank the Planeteer Alliance for helping us get into this historic treaty negotiations that will (hopefully) end plastic pollution forever.