G20 agrees marine plastic pollution deal

Yahoo – AFP, Kyoko HASEGAWA, June 16, 2019

Campaigners say the only long-term solution to the plastic waste crisis is for
companies to make less and consumers to use less (AFP Photo/JOSEPH EID)

Tokyo (AFP) - The Group of 20 major economies said they agreed a deal to reduce plastic waste that is choking the seas at a meeting in Japan on Sunday.

Under the agreement, G20 member countries committed to reducing plastic waste but gave little detail on how that would be done. They added that the steps would be voluntary and progress would be reported once a year, according to local media.

The Japanese government hopes to hold the first meeting in November, said newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.

"It is great that we were able to make rules for all, including emerging and developing countries," Japanese environment minister Yoshiaki Harada said after the two-day meeting of the G20 environment and energy ministers' meeting.

Plastic pollution has become a global concern, particularly after bans imposed by China and other countries on the import of plastic waste from overseas.

Many countries, including Japan, have seen their waste pile up as a consequence.

Microplastics -- tiny pieces of degraded waste -- have attracted particular attention.

They absorb harmful chemicals, accumulating inside fish, birds and other animals, and are difficult to collect once in the water.

Plastic pollution has become an increasing international concern (AFP Photo/

Boris HORVAT)

The framework agreed at the meeting in the central mountain resort of Karuizawa would be the first to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean involving not only rich nations but emerging economies as well.

'Legally binding' rules needed

The deal would be "the first step" to tackling plastic waste, Hiroaki Odachi of Greenpeace Japan said in a statement.

"However, it is insufficient to rely on countries' voluntary actions" to resolve the crisis, he said.

Only an estimated nine percent of plastics ever produced are recycled and campaigners say the only long-term solution to the plastic waste crisis is for companies to make less and consumers to use less.

"G20 countries should clearly announce that they will prioritise reducing generation of single-use plastics" along with recycling and reusing materials, Odachi said.

"Legally binding international rules with clear timelines and goals" are needed, similar to those in the Paris Agreement on climate, he added.

The 2015 Paris agreement commits signatories to efforts to cap global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).

Japan will demand businesses charge for plastic shopping bags next year to help reduce waste, said Japanese industry minister Hiroshige Seko on Saturday.

Many countries in the world already charge for single-use bags or ban them outright.

Dutchman wins prestigious prize for work with seeds and small farmers

DutchNews, June 11, 2019

Photo: Marcel Bakker via World Food Prize Foundation

This year’s World Food Prize, the most important global prize in the field of farming and food, has been awarded to Dutchman Simon Groot for his work in helping millions of smallholder farmers to use good seeds. 

This work, the organising committee says, ‘enabled them to to earn greater incomes through enhanced vegetable production, benefitting hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets’. 

‘Simon Groot has dedicated his life to improving the livelihoods of millions around the world,’ Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, said at the award announcement on Monday. 

Groot, now 84, and his partner in the Philippines, started East-West Seed in 1982. Today, the team has developed vegetable varieties with enhanced disease resistance and significantly higher yields which are now used across Asia and beyond. The company serves 19 million smallholder farmers in more than 60 tropical countries.

Announcing the 2019 World Food Prize Laureate, from the Netherlands, Mr. Simon N. Groot. #FoodPrize19 pic.twitter.com/LzKIefa3Nw

— The World Food Prize (@WorldFoodPrize) 10 juni 2019

In an interview with the Volkskrant, Groot said he thinks it regrettable that seed production is in the hands of a few big companies such as Bayer/Monsanto and Syngenta. 

The big companies, he said, are limiting supplies because there is little money to be made from minor breeds. ‘Big companies look at the importance of shareholders,’ he said. ‘Traditional seed companies put the interests of farmers first. We are friends to farmers.’ 

The prize was founded in 1986 by Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Groot is the first Dutch national to take the prize.

Philippines ships dumped trash back to Canada

Yahoo – AFP, Ron LOPEZ, May 31, 2019

Container ship MV Bavaria, hired by Canada to take its trash back, arrives 

at Subic Bay in the Philippines (AFP Photo/Noel CELIS)

Manila (AFP) - Tonnes of garbage sent to the Philippines years ago was shipped back to Canada on Friday after a festering diplomatic row, as Asian nations increasingly reject serving as dumping grounds for international trash.

After a long campaign to urge Canada to take back the rotting waste, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at Ottawa last week and ordered the refuse returned immediately.

The 69 shipping containers of garbage were loaded onto a cargo vessel at Subic Bay, a former US naval base and shipping port northwest of Manila, and began the lengthy trip to Canada.

"Baaaaaaaaa bye, as we say it," Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin wrote on Twitter, along with images of the vessel leaving.

Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna welcomed the news of the trash being returned, telling reporters on Thursday: "We committed with the Philippines and we're working closely with them."

People swim at a beach in Subic Bay where a container ship hired by Canada is 

loaded with trash that the Philippines has ordered returned (AFP Photo/Noel CELIS)

Just days earlier Malaysia announced it was shipping 450 tonnes of imported plastic waste back to its sources, including Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

For years China had received the bulk of scrap plastic from around the world, but closed its doors to foreign refuse last year in an effort to clean up its environment.

Huge quantities of waste plastic have since been redirected to Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia and to a lesser degree the Philippines.

"We've seen pristine communities... transformed into dumpsites because of a tsunami of waste shipments from the US, UK and Australia as a result of the China ban," said Von Hernandez, global coordinator from Break Free From Plastic advocacy group.

300 million tonnes of waste

The Philippine row centres on dozens of containers which a Canadian firm sent to the Southeast Asian nation in 2013 and 2014 -- incorrectly labelled as recyclables.

The issue has polluted Manila-Ottawa ties for years, but it blew up when Duterte said in an April speech: "Let's fight Canada. I will declare war against them."

Since then Canada pledged to take back the waste, but after it missed a Manila-imposed May 15 deadline the Philippines recalled its envoys to Ottawa.

The Philippines garbage row centres on dozens of containers which a Canadian

firm sent to the Southeast Asian nation -- incorrectly labelled as recyclables

(AFP Photo/Noel CELIS)

Duterte's spokesman, Salvador Panelo, ratcheted up the pressure by saying Manila would ship the trash back on its own "immediately" and threatened to dump the waste in Canadian waters.

From the Philippine side there were immediate signs the departure of the trash would stabilise Manila-Ottawa relations.

"To our recalled posts, get your flights back. Thanks and sorry for the trouble you went through to drive home a point." Foreign Secretary Locsin tweeted on Friday.

Global concern over plastic pollution has been spurred by shocking images of waste-clogged rivers in Southeast Asia and accounts of dead sea creatures found with kilos of refuse in their stomachs.

Around 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), with much of it ending up in landfills or polluting the seas, in what has become a growing international crisis.

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