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Towards a Pollution-Free Planet

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Towards a Pollution-Free Planet Towards a Pollution-Free Planet Report of the Executive Director United Nations Environment Programme Advance Copy (long version) Copy Advance unep.org/environmentassembly This advance version of the report "Towards a Pollution-Free Planet" by the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme is meant to support the preparations for the third session of the UN Environment Assembly. This is not for quotation or citation at this point. Comments to the secretariat are welcome by 14 July. A shorter version of this paper targeting policy makers will be prepared and provided in September. Towards a Pollution-Free Planet Report of the Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme Advance Copy (long version) Towards a Pollution-Free Planet Table of Contents Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. I INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 1 EVIDENCE OF A POLLUTED PLANET: THE SCIENCE, IMPACTS AND ECONOMIC COSTS ..................................5 1.1 Air pollution ............................................................................................................................5 1.2 Land and soil pollution ...........................................................................................................9 1.3 Freshwater pollution .............................................................................................................11 1.4 Marine and coastal pollution ................................................................................................13 1.5 Cross-cutting sources of pollution .......................................................................................15 1.5.1 Chemicals ...................................................................................................................................... 15 1.5.2 Waste .......................................................................................................................................... 18 1.6 Costs of pollution: global and regional .................................................................................20 2 ADDRESSING POLLUTION: GLOBAL FRAMEWORKS, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE 2030 AGENDA ...........................................................................23 2.1 Global and regional environmental agreements and national regulations: tackling pollution ................................................................................23 2.2 Actual and potential benefits of addressing pollution ..........................................................29 2.3 Challenges that limit the effectiveness of pollution actions ................................................32 2.4 The Sustainable Development Goals: an opportunity to accelerate pollution action ...........33 2.5 Multi-stakeholders and multi-level engagement: central to improved environmental ............ governance ...........................................................................................................................36 Towards a Pollution-Free Planet Table of Contents 3 TRANSITIONING TO A POLLUTION-FREE PLANET ................................37 3.1 Targeted priority interventions for pollution risk areas ........................................................39 3.1.1 Interventions targeting hard hitting pollutants ............................................................................ 40 3.1.2 Interventions targeting key pollution areas ................................................................................. 42 3.2 Transformative actions to shift the economy ......................................................................42 3.2.1 Building circularity into production processes and supply chains and key economic sectors ......................................................................................................................... 44 3.2.2 Reorienting finance and investments .......................................................................................... 48 3.2.3 Promoting green technologies and ecosystem based solutions to mitigate and manage pollution ................................................................................................................... 50 3.2.4 Integrating policies to tackle pollution: the example of city level actions: ................................ 52 3.2.5 Incentivizing responsible consumption and lifestyles choices .................................................. 53 3.3 Enablers ...............................................................................................................................54 3.3.1 Evidence-based decision-making ................................................................................................ 54 3.3.2 Improving pollution-related governance ...................................................................................... 55 3.2.3 Economic instruments.................................................................................................................. 57 3.2.4 Education for change .................................................................................................................... 59 3.2.5 Cooperation and partnerships ..................................................................................................... 60 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................61 ANNEXES ...............................................................................................62 Annex 1: Comparison of the magnitude (severity) of different types of pollution by proxy ................63 Annex 2: The costs of pollution ..........................................................................................................64 Annex 3: How pollution is reflected in the various multilateral frameworks and environmental agreements ............................................................................................69 Annex 4: Regional initiatives, networks and agreements ....................................................................75 Annex 5 Analysis of the linkages between addressing pollution types and implementing sustainable development goal targets. .........................................................79 Annex 6 Rio Principles relevant to a pollution-free planet .................................................................84 Annex 7 Impacts, benefits and limitations of cleaner technologies...................................................87 REFERENCES .........................................................................................90 Towards a Pollution-Free Planet Executive Summary 06 Towards a Pollution-Free Planet Executive Summary Executive Summary Pollution today is pervasive and persistent. While the world has achieved impressive economic growth over the past few decades, this progress has been accompanied by increased pollution. As populations grow and more people escape poverty and aspire to improved consumption, the linear economic model of “take-make-dispose” is burdening an already polluted planet. Pollution is clearly not a new phenomenon, and is largely controllable and often avoidable. Many stories exist of countries, cities, and businesses that have addressed serious air, soil, freshwater and marine pollution issues. Adequate knowledge and technological solutions exist to both treat, control and avoid pollution. Encouragingly, more and more governments, industries and citizens are moving towards a sustainable materials and circular economy, with greater resource efficiency, sustainable chemistry and clean technologies, as part of a transition towards a green economy. Differences in capacity and development to tackle pollution adequately worldwide, however, are still huge. As the number of success stories of preventing, reducing and better managing pollution increase, identifying systemic approaches, steps and interventions to transition towards a pollution-free planet is achievable. “Towards a pollution-free planet” is an aspirational goal, seeking actions to eliminate anthropogenic pollution that degrades ecosystems, harms human health and well-being, and impacts the functioning of all living species. Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including its numerous pollution-reducing targets, is a crucial milestone on the path towards a pollution-free planet. Transitioning to a pollution-free world can drive innovations in the economy through seeing pollution regulation compliance as an opportunity to clean the environment, but also create new job opportunities and improve economic productivity. It would be the best insurance policy for future generations as it would improve the ecosystem integrity that they need for survival. The severity of pollution is based on its chemical nature, concentration, presence and persistence. Some types of pollution are easily noticed, such as contaminated water, poor air quality, industrial waste, litter and light, heat and noise. Others are less visible, for example the presence of pesticides in food, nutrients in the sea and lakes, and endocrine disrupting chemicals in drinking water, personal care products and cleaning solutions. Some, such as those coming from abandoned industrial and mines sites, armed conflict, nuclear power stations, and waste landfill form
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