Geneva Day - Beat Plastic Pollution: Delivering systems change at speed and scale

The world faces a plastic crisis. If current trends continue, production of plastics will double in the next 20 years. The environmental impacts of plastic pollution occur across the life cycle of plastics - with impacts on all ecosystems and on the triple planetary crisis. Plastic pollution also presents health concerns, ranging from microplastics present in food and human bodies to risks associated with chemical additives in plastic products. In 2022, in a historic resolution to ‘End Plastic Pollution' governments launched negotiations for an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. The ambition is to achieve nothing less than a system change to achieve sustainable plastic production and consumption as well as a circular economy for plastics that protects the environment and human health.
This panel will identify and highlight how this paradigm shift will require all hands on deck – from governments, International Organizations, civil society, private sector and scientists alike. 

Welcome Speech

• H.E. Mr. Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation
• Ms. Nathalie Fontanet, State Councillor, Canton of Geneva

Keynotes

• H.E. Mr. Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation
• H.E. Mr. Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, President of the Republic of Ecuador

Speakers

• Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , Director General, WHO 
• Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General, WTO 
• H.E. Ms. Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, Minister of Environment of the Republic of Rwanda 
• Mr. Marco Lambertini, Special Envoy, WWF 
• Ms. Kristin Hughes, Director, Global Plastic Action Partnership, WEF 
• Ms. Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, UNEP, Executive Secretary, Secretariat for the INC on plastic pollution 

Moderator

• Dr. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Director, Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs, Geneva Graduate Institute

The video of the event will be published on https://www.eda.admin.ch/missions/mission-onu-geneve/en/home.html. 

Media requests
Paola Ceresetti
Spokesperson
paola.ceresetti@eda.admin.ch
+41 79 240 19 18