Director-General/Executive Director
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured to be here today to discuss how we can mitigate climate change through the sustainable management of waste.
I would like to thank the French Solid Waste Partnership and the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions for collaborating on this critical issue.
I am also pleased to see other partners, including those from the private sector on stage today.
This is an issue that requires a response from all stakeholders.
Global waste is overwhelming our planet and hindering our efforts to mitigate climate change.
Today, waste is the fourth largest sector contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions and is growing exponentially.
The World Bank estimates that waste will reach 3.40 billion tonnes by 2050, increasing twice as fast as the population over the same period.
High-income countries with their high consumption rates generate more than one-third of the world’s waste, even though they account for only 16 percent of the global population.
And waste that is difficult to dispose of or costly to process is increasingly being exported, and sometimes trafficked, to the developing world.
Financial disparities between countries, combined with weak environmental legislation and enforcement, leads to more waste shipments from developed to less developed nations.
Countries in Asia and Africa have become the world’s unlucky waste recipients, including of huge quantities of illegal, hazardous, contaminated, and unrecyclable materials.
Despite imposing waste trade bans and restrictions, these countries continue to be flooded with unmanageable mountains of garbage.
This illicit process paves the way for unsustainable and dangerous waste disposal methods, resulting in the release of powerful greenhouse gases.
They also contribute to pollution, contaminate soil and groundwater, and have a devastating impact on ecosystems, decreasing the ability of wetlands, oceans, and forests to serve as carbon sinks for our rapidly warming planet.
And it exposes workers and vulnerable communities to toxic harms.
Meanwhile, because illegal waste trafficking is a high-profit, low risk business, it is particularly attractive to criminal organisations.
Hazardous materials are being smuggled alongside drugs, illegal wildlife shipments, and other contraband, while fuelling money laundering and corruption.
We must find better ways to manage the world’s waste.
We need more effective regulatory frameworks for waste management.
And we need to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement and justice systems to put these frameworks into action and disrupt illicit waste flows.
Working together, countries can carry out more effective investigations to uncover operations and trafficking routes, and dismantle criminal networks.
These partnerships should include mutual legal assistance and the sharing of best practices for responsible waste management.
Within countries and internationally, we need stronger partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society.
Waste management is a multi-stakeholder process, from production to disposal.
Affected communities should have a voice in developing solutions, alongside the companies and organisations responsible.
And, while we address our global waste management crisis, we must simultaneously look for ways to reduce trash at the source and increase circularity.
In a circular economy, there is no longer a need for landfills, as materials are either reused, recycled, or converted into energy sources, creating a more sustainable environment for the future.
Excellencies,
Together with our partners, including the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime is stepping up its efforts to end illegal waste trafficking by strengthening national capacities for detection, investigation, prosecution, and adjudication.
UNODC and the World Customs Organization are partnering through the Container Control Programme to help enforcement agencies seize illegal shipments at ports, including shipments of plastic and hazardous waste, specifically in the cargo supply chain.
Through this initiative, customs officials have already seized or identified over 84,000 tonnes of plastic and other hazardous waste between May 2020 and September 2023 in Southeast Asia.
And this year, UNODC training activities led to the confiscation of 16.5 tonnes of used tires in the Philippines, and 3,500 tonnes of dumped plastic waste in Thailand.
Our “Unwaste” project, funded by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the UN Environment Programme, is working to tackle waste trafficking between the European Union and Southeast Asia.
Our forthcoming Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment, funded by the governments of France and Germany, will expand our overall understanding of illicit waste trafficking and its impacts on people and the planet.
And UNODC has also developed a Legislative Guide on Waste Trafficking, offering guidance for improving national legislation on these issues.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our success at preserving our environment, mitigating climate change, and protecting vulnerable communities is linked to how responsibly we handle our waste.
COP28 and the Global Stocktake is an opportunity to integrate justice system responses into the circular economy agenda, for more sustainable waste management.
It’s time for decisive, coordinated action to clean up our planet and prevent long-term damage to our ecosystems and communities. Our planet and our future depend on it.
Thank you.