Japan and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) announced a new cooperative effort in Iraq and South Sudan to tackle plastic pollution across Asia and to support post-conflict environmental recovery, announced on 25 May 2020.
Four projects will be led by UNEP with support of Japan; approximately 6.9 million US dollars or 758 million Japanese yen was contributed through a supplementary budget.
(1) Support for Plastic Waste Spill Prevention Measures in the Asia-Pacific Region (JPY627 million)
The bulk of the funds will finance a second phase of the CounterMEASURE project, which identifies the sources of plastic waste in some of the major rivers in Asia and has funded local collaborations to minimize plastic pollution.
Learn more about CounterMEASURE via YouTube video!
(2) Support for research on environmentally sound management, technology and treatment with Plastic Waste throughout Asia (approximately JPY 100 million)
UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) will be leading the work, looking at how to deploy a digital platform to support environmentally sound management of plastic waste.
Through the digital platform, we aim at visualizing the complex and diverse information on waste, especially with the focus on plastic waste, lumping together via the utilization of latest information technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The above (1) and (2) are the part of the MARINE Initiative toward the realization of "Osaka Blue Vision” which supports developing countries in combating the marine plastic waste, with the target of Zero marine plastic waste by 2050, announced at the G20 Summit in Osaka in 2019.
(3) Support for returnees and emergency livelihoods in Iraq through conflict debris management (JPY 27.78 million)
As parts of Iraq recover from the destructive conflict with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), this project will aim to help returners to the Kirkuk Governorate by clearing their homes and providing livelihoods through debris recycling programmes. Then the crushed debris is used in rehabilitation works.
(4) Resilience of vulnerable farmers, pastoralists and internally displaced persons to natural disasters associated with climate change (JPY 3.28 million)
This project is to support vulnerable farmers, pastoralists and internally displaced persons in South Sudan to build resilience to natural disasters under changing climate conditions.
In addition to this support, Japan also provides important contributions to the Environment Fund, UNEP’s core fund. The Environment Fund is instrumental in helping countries deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2019, Japan contributed US$1.94 million to the Environment Fund.
UNEP is going to continue to deepen its cooperation with Japan to achieve the better international community in the field of environment.
“The global pandemic COVID-19 and the generation of additional plastic waste will amplify our urgent needs to find solutions to the crisis of plastic pollution. Japan’s support and expertise in waste management is incredibly vital to finding solutions to these problems,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “Japan has long been a committed and reliable partner to UNEP, and we are pleased to deepen this collaboration.”
[Related Informatoin]
For more information, please contact at Mr. Shunichi Honda.
shunichi.honda[at]un.org
- Log in to post comments
