The announcement that Ivory Coast will host World Environment Day on June 5 with the theme “solutions to plastic pollution” was made on Monday.
The UN-sponsored World Environment Day event, which this year commemorates its 50th anniversary, will include participation from more than 150 nations.
Plastic pollution is “a menace to us all,” according to Ivory Coast’s minister of the environment and sustainable development, Jean-Luc Assi.
The minister declared that the Ivorian administration is dedicated to setting “a leadership example in sustainable development”.
In order to keep global temperatures below two degrees Celsius, Ivory Coast was one of the 196 nations to ratify the Paris Climate Accords in 2016.
The nation outlawed the manufacture, distribution, and use of plastic bags in November 2014.
Yet, despite protests from store owners in Abidjan, the country’s commercial city, the regulation is still not always upheld.
A formal UN treaty on the issue of plastic pollution was agreed upon by 175 countries last year, and it may take effect by the end of 2024.
According to the UN Environment Program, more than 400 million tons of plastic are manufactured annually, half of it for single-use products.
