DNA Edit: Cause for worry – India’s anti-plastic campaign takes a beating at UNEA

India’s consistent campaign to phase out plastic, laudable as the objective is, has just taken a pounding. An ambitious resolution piloted by India to phase out single-use plastics by 2025, was watered down at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) that concluded last week in Nairobi. In June 2018, at the World Environment Day summit, India — with Prime Minister Narendra Modi looking on  — had pledged to eliminate single-use plastics by 2022, which was even hailed by the UN Environment Chief Eric Solheim. But the reason for watering down the Indian position at the UNEA calls for retrospection, or maybe even an inquiry, into the course of such inaction. Ahead of the UNEA, the UN Secretariat had invited inputs from member states to forge a common declaration regarding addressing a host of environmental challenges. India categorically stated its intention to phase out single-use plastic products by 2025. 

However, the final declaration removed the firm time lines, committing to a reduction only by 2030. So what happened? An official told an Indian newspaper that “we did not have enough subject experts at Nairobi.” For a country, which aspires to have a superpower status in addition to being one of the leading economies of the world, it should be considered a denouement. The blame has be laid at the doors of the government and the officials, who plainly had no business to attend an international conference without adequate domain knowledge. In the past too, some Indian officials attending global meetings have been exposed for their knowledge gaps. 

Surely, for India that has been running an anti-plastic campaign for the last few years, such positioning does not help. Despite being hailed by a UN body, India could not make it count where it mattered the most. It certainly is a body blow to the country in its fight against plastic, which has littered urban habitats, countryside as well as water bodies like few things have, leading to untold health and environmental hazards.