Barbados Participates In Plastics Pollution Installation Launch

For small island developing states (SIDS) like Barbados, delivering a strong and ambitious plastics treaty at the resumed Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee’s fifth session (INC-5.2) negotiations is incredibly important.

This was stressed by Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, World Trade Organization and other International Organizations in Geneva, Matthew Wilson, during the launch of an artwork dedicated to addressing plastic pollution.

Ambassador Wilson was one of the high-level keynote speakers at the inauguration of artist Benjamin Von Wong’s installation against plastics pollution in the Place de Nations at the United Nations in Geneva in the margins of the Plastics Pollution Negotiations.

He was one of the actors who supported the world-renowned artist to showcase his reinterpretation of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’, which depicts the figure clutching a child, seated on Mother Earth and surrounded by a DNA helix, slowly being buried under plastic waste.

The ceremony unveiling the art piece was held, August 7, with the participation of hundreds of delegates and non-governmental organizations attending the negotiations.

During the event, high-level statements were delivered by representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme, the Canton of Geneva, the Minderoo Foundation, and Ambassadors of Switzerland, Canada, and Barbados.

Ambassador Wilson commended the artist for his initiative and stated that “good art like good trouble is necessary”. He added: “We have an opportunity to show that multilateralism can work and to show that people and planet can be placed above profit and plastic.”

As SIDS are most affected by plastics pollution, given their reliance on the ocean economy, Barbados and other SIDS have been advocating for an ambitious treaty that delivers global binding criteria for safe plastics; sustainable product design; recognition of special circumstances of SIDS and LDCs; a mechanism for addressing existing pollution, including in the oceans; and financial support for developing countries, especially around waste management.

In referring to the ongoing negotiations, he noted: “If all of the subsidies given to fossil fuel production were shifted to waste management and the development of plastic substitutes, what a different world we would be living in! If tariff rates for plastic substitutes were lowered to the rate of tariff rates for single-use plastics, imagine the good trade opportunities it would provide.

“Imagine if developing countries, especially SIDS and LDCs, were given the opportunity to access the finance, the technology transfer and the market access to turn their indigenous materials into safe plastic substitutes. Imagine what an impact that could have on poverty levels, on employment creation and on reducing debt burden.” 

Barbados is represented at the negotiations by a team from the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, the Embassy of Barbados in Kenya, and officials from the Ministry of Environment and National Beautification, Green and Blue Economy. (PR/GIS)