On this episode of About Sustainability…, Erin, Alice, and Simon were joined by Matthew Hengesbaugh and Chochoe Devaporihartakula, IGES experts working on plastic pollution. While plastics have been an indispensable part of modern life, plastic pollution has entered the public consciousness in recent years. It is an issue that most of us encounter every day.

The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) agreed in 2022 to create an intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) to establish a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. 

We discussed how serious plastic pollution is in Asia, what the INC is trying to achieve, what was discussed at the recent meeting (INC-3) including the challenges that emerged, and what is needed for an ambitious treaty to tackle this transboundary issue.

About our guests:

Chochoe Devaporihartakula manages the regional project portfolio addressing plastics and marine pollution at the IGES Bangkok Regional Centre. She also serves as a Programme Manager for the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network, where she is dedicated to promoting improved compliance with environmental laws and regulations through environmental agencies across 18 countries in Asia.

Matthew Hengesbaugh is a Policy Researcher supporting the IGES Integrated Sustainability Centre with action research on the 2030 Development Agenda, working on issues such as climate change, green jobs, green economy, and sustainable consumption and production.

Relevant publications and projects:

• Previous podcast episodes on this topic:
  • What is UNEA-5.2?
  • Updates from the ongoing political and scientific processes to reduce plastic pollution
• SWITCH-Asia’s policy brief on INC-3

"About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.