FE Today Logo
Search date: 25-01-2025 Return to current date: Click here

BD joins GPAP to fight plastic pollution

FE REPORT | January 25, 2025 00:00:00


The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) has welcomed seven new members, including Bangladesh, for joining the international platform.

Bangladesh's participation in the GPAP is expected to help the country fight plastic pollution.

The GPAP is a multi-stakeholder platform, which has been launched by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The GPAP has brought its impact-focused global network to 25 countries with a combined population of over 1.5 billion people, according to a statement.

Six other members are Angola, Gabon, Guatemala, Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania.

This marks a pivotal milestone in the fight against plastic pollution and solidifies the GPAP as the largest global initiative dedicated to tackling its root causes and advancing a circular plastics economy worldwide.

"Reaching this 25-nation milestone is not just a celebration of numbers. It's a testament to the growing global determination to tackle one of the world's most pressing challenges," Clemence Schmid, director of the GPAP, was quoted as saying in the statement.

The new countries would bring fresh momentum and new perspectives to the GPAP mission of amplifying impact, enabling best practice sharing and strengthening national and international efforts to reduce plastic pollution, said the WEF.

These have already mobilised $3.1 billion in investments, created safer jobs for informal waste workers and supported countries for achieving measurable progress on sustainability and climate resilience, it adds.

According to the GPAP website, Bangladesh's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has announced its collaboration with the platform in November last year.

Bangladesh continues to urbanise rapidly, its plastic consumption and pollution have surged alarmingly. From 3.0 kg in 2005, the annual per capita plastic consumption in urban areas has soared to 9.0 kg by 2020, it says.

saif.febd@gmail.com


Share if you like