Consultations for a cleaner Pacific

Since 2016, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) has been organizing a roundtable on the theme of waste and pollution in the Pacific every two years. At the initiative of the Acotred Pacific cluster, the main representative of New Caledonian waste management stakeholders, and in conjunction with the Government, New Caledonia was selec ted as the host country for the third edition of the event. New Caledonia wants to share its know-how, promote its industries and open up the market on a regional scale," Joseph Manauté said, in his opening speech on November 16. This round table gives us the opportunity to help other countries and territories to strengthen their capacities but also to benefit from the expertise of each territory. This year, the discussions will focus on three themes in particular: the circular economy, innovation and public-private partnerships, and finally the awareness of waste management (showing the link between the population and waste).

The event ends on 25 November.

 A Regional Waste Management Strategy

With 100 participants in 2016, 200 in 2018, the Clean Pacific Roundtable is the largest regional conference on waste management issues. Its objectives are to launch high-impact initiatives and enable regional and national stakeholders to cooperate in the implementation of the Pacific Regional Waste and Pollution Management Strategy 2016-2025 ("Cleaner Pacific 2025"). Since its adoption, many actions have been taken to improve waste and pollution management,"  Joseph Manauté said. Now, we have four more years to achieve the goals of the 2016-2025 plan to reduce the threats posed by various types of waste and chemicals, and promote sustainable development in the region.

The opening session took place via videoconference.  

Ambitions

 For example, New Caledonia has stepped up its efforts to eliminate illegal dumps, organize waste collection and develop recycling, reuse and recovery channels. Not to mention the regulation that will progressively ban the use of all single-use plastic objects by 2022. At the regional level, the Pacific Island countries and territories committed themselves on December 10 to negotiate a binding agreement to fight plastic pollution and strengthen environmental multilateralism. "We must be more ambitious, act effectively and form a regional and transformative coalition (...) in order to find political and technical solutions to address this environmental crisis,"  the New Caledonian Minister said in the conclusion of his speech.