G7 Summit
June 9, 2018 (QUÉBEC CITY) – Following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Chair’s Press Conference about the final communique of the 2018 G7 Summit and his announcement of the the G7 Ocean Plastics Charter — agreed to by five of the seven participating nations and the European Union — Greenpeace Canada plastics campaigner, Farrah Khan, said:
“ This plastics charter is another non-binding, voluntary agreement that fails to secure the action needed to get to the root cause of the plastic pollution crisis. Trudeau announced today that the charter focuses ‘on recycling and repurposing’, but made no mention of reduction strategies or bans on single-use plastics that are major culprits in ocean plastic pollution. Recycling alone will not solve this problem and reduction measures are necessary if we are serious about curbing ocean plastics.
Regardless of the outcome of the G7 Ocean Plastics Charter negotiations, Canada does not need to wait on its allies to create an urgently needed national plan and show leadership on this issue domestically. We are looking for Canada to move beyond this voluntary agreement and legislate binding reduction targets and bans on single-use plastics, invest in new delivery models for reuse, and hold corporations responsible for the plastic pollution problem they have created.
Today, under Canada’s leadership, the G7 Summit failed to to take strong action to address the plastics pollution crisis. A national strategy focused on tackling plastic pollution at the source must be announced and implemented as soon as possible.”
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One day before the Summit began, Greenpeace Canada staff and volunteers sent a hard-to-miss message to G7 leaders, calling for a ban on single-use plastics because recycling alone is not enough to tackle the scale of the problem.
For more information, please contact:
Loujain Kurdi, Greenpeace Canada, Communications Officer, 514-577-6657, [email protected]