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STORY: NICE / UNOC3 PLASTIC UNEP INTERVIEW
TRT: 03:09
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 JUNE 2025, NICE, FRANCE
1. Med shot, UN flag, Lympia port
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“In the United Nations and in the United Nation's Environment Programme, we speak about a triple planetary crisis. So, what is it? Well, everybody has heard about the climate crisis, of course. That's crisis number one. But we also have a nature loss crisis and land degradation crisis. So, what's happening to our nature and to our marine environment? And then we have a pollution crisis. And these three crises don't operate independently of one another.”
3. Wide shot, UNOC3 venue
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“So, we need to move across these three crises at the very same time. That's what we are trying to do. And here at the Oceans Conference, that's one of the areas that we are discussing. Oceans are these innocents. They just will inhale the carbon dioxide. There's nothing we can do about it. So, the more carbon dioxide we put out into the atmosphere the more carbon dioxide the oceans will take out.”
5. Aerial shot, UNOC3 venue
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“So essentially, that means that we are acidifying our oceans, and that causes coral reef die out, it causes ocean warming of course, and all of that, which means that our species, the biodiversity, can no longer stay where they were, because now all of a sudden, it's too hot. And so, we're seeing these shifts in the biodiversity and of course we're seeing massive pollution into the oceans, we're treating the oceans like this giant trash bin and all of our rubbish ends up often in the ocean.”
7. Aerial shot, UNOC3 venue
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“We're only recycling about 9 percent of all the plastic that we produce. So, all of that plastic, only nine percent, is recycled. The rest, some is incinerated around 10 percent, and the rest goes into the landfill or is lost. Way over 20 percent of our plastic is lost into the open environment and in the end, it will flow into the oceans. So, we have started, Member States agreed, Member State to the United Nations agreed in 2022, actually, we need to have an agreement about stopping and ending plastic pollution including in the marine environment.”
9. Aerial shot, UNOC3 venue
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP):
“So, we have agreed as a global community, member states of the United Nations, to negotiate this agreement. And we have the next round of negotiations taking place in August in Geneva, and there we actually need to see the countries come together around the text of this that is in negotiation so that we can end plastic pollution. People are demanding it, business are demanding, the young people are demanding it. Politicians need to deliver this and need to deliver it now because surely no one can be in favor of plastic pollution, so let's get the deal done. Let's beat plastic pollution once and for all.”
11. Wide shot, UNOC3 venue
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) chief said, “Let's beat plastic pollution once and for all.”
In a UNifeed interview in the context of the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France, UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen talked about the triple planetary crisis and said, “Everybody has heard about the climate crisis, of course. That's crisis number one. But we also have a nature loss crisis and land degradation crisis. So, what's happening to our nature and to our marine environment? And then we have a pollution crisis. And these three crises don't operate independently of one another.”
She continued, “So, we need to move across these three crises at the very same time. That's what we are trying to do. And here at the Oceans Conference, that's one of the areas that we are discussing. Oceans are these innocents. They just will inhale the carbon dioxide. There's nothing we can do about it. So, the more carbon dioxide we put out into the atmosphere the more carbon dioxide the oceans will take out.”
She added, “So essentially, that means that we are acidifying our oceans, and that causes coral reef die out, it causes ocean warming of course, and all of that, which means that our species, the biodiversity, can no longer stay where they were, because now all of a sudden, it's too hot. And so, we're seeing these shifts in the biodiversity and of course we're seeing massive pollution into the oceans, we're treating the oceans like this giant trash bin and all of our rubbish ends up often in the ocean.”
She stressed, “We're only recycling about 9 percent of all the plastic that we produce. So, all of that plastic, only nine percent, is recycled. The rest, some is incinerated around 10 percent, and the rest goes into the landfill or is lost. Way over 20 percent of our plastic is lost into the open environment and in the end, it will flow into the oceans. So, we have started, Member States agreed, Member State to the United Nations agreed in 2022, actually, we need to have an agreement about stopping and ending plastic pollution including in the marine environment.”
She concluded, “So, we have agreed as a global community, member states of the United Nations, to negotiate this agreement. And we have the next round of negotiations taking place in August in Geneva, and there we actually need to see the countries come together around the text of this that is in negotiation so that we can end plastic pollution. People are demanding it, business are demanding, the young people are demanding it. Politicians need to deliver this and need to deliver it now because surely no one can be in favor of plastic pollution, so let's get the deal done. Let's beat plastic pollution once and for all.”
