The context in which PICTs import, produce, use and manage energy in the 2020s and beyond will differ from 2010 when the previous 10 year framework began. The region faces even more serious challenges, including: severe climate change and impacts on energy infrastructure; continued heavy dependence on petroleum fuel during a period of expected of global energy market transformation and potential dislocation; continued uncertainties and negative social and economic impacts due to COVID-19 and potentially, further pandemics, and the extension of affordable clean energy services to communities currently poorly served
The threats of increase waste and pollution threatens our sustainable development and now elevated even more so than ever before. We are now facing a major crisis, WE MUST ACT NOW, by firstly we are making a better consumer choices, secondly we must promote recycling and adopt a more innovative approach to using traditional alternatives, this is consistent with the Cleaner Pacific 2025 for a shift from a linear economy to a circular economy where we import commodities that can be used, recycle and reduced to recyclable waste.
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.
Global plastics production is a significant contributor to climate change impacts in the Pacific Islands region. 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.
Once produced, plastic never disappear. They are released into the environment, where they break up into tiny (micro-nano-sized) fragments. They leach toxic chemicals and gases at every stage of their life cycle and they attract and transfer additional toxic chemicals, pathogens, and invasive species. Toxic plastics-related chemicals and nano and microplastics contaminate soil, food, marine and freshwater sources, air and the bodies of animals and humans.
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.
This report on the State of the Climate in South-West Pacific 2020 is the first of its kind for this region and a milestone multi-agency effort to deliver informed climate analysis and climate change trends. It includes a comprehensive integrated risk assessment and climate action guidance for building resilience to extreme weather events and climate change thus promoting sustainable development
Pacific Island biodiversity has a notorious record of decline and extinction which continues due to habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, over exploitation, pollution, disease and human-forced climate change
