'A new global treaty on plastic pollution – updates from the front line' with Andy Raine

Past Event

Date
 01 December 2022, 12:15pm - 1:00pm

Location
 Oxford Martin School & Online
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

Event Recording:

In March 2022, Member States of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted an historic resolution establishing an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC).

This Committee had a mandate to develop a new legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (the Plastics Treaty). The instrument is expected to address the full life cycle of plastics and, among other things, include provisions to promote sustainable production and consumption of plastics through product design and environmentally sound waste management. In the words of the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, the proposed Plastics Treaty, if adopted, will be “the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord. It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it.”

Governments have set themselves an ambitious timetable with the INC to prepare the instrument “by the end of 2024”. The first session of the INC will take place in Punta del Este, Uruguay, from 28 November to 2 December 2022. In this talk, Andy Raine will share information on the history and scope of the proposed treaty and the current status of the negotiations. He will also briefly discuss considerations relevant to his research as to how the proposed treaty could be an opportunity for advancing more inclusive and networked multilateralism in the context of an enhanced role of sub-state and non-state actors (e.g. cities, local authorities, academic institutions, businesses, and other non-governmental organisations).

This is a joint event with the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Plastics

Raine Andy

Andy Raine
Senior Legal Officer & Head of the International Environmental Law Unit in the Law Division, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Andy Raine is a Senior Legal Officer and Head of the International Environmental Law Unit in the Law Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He is based at UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi and leads a global team in the progressive development and implementation of international environmental law. Andy has worked for over 20 years as an environmental lawyer in the public and private sectors, with positions in Melbourne, London, New York, Bangkok, and now Nairobi.

Prior to his current role, Andy served as UNEP’s Asia Pacific Regional Coordinator for Environmental Law and Governance, working across the region to advance the development and implementation of environmental rule of law. He has also held positions at the United Nations Development Programme, and in international law firms (Linklaters in London and Freehills in Melbourne). Andy has a Master of Laws (Environmental Law and Policy) with Distinction from University College London, and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Business (Management) from the University of Queensland.

From September to December 2022 Andy will undertake a UN sabbatical research project with the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford, and in partnership with the Oxford Martin School Programme on the Future of Plastics. The title of Andy’s research project is ‘Reimagining international environmental law: enhancing the normative implementation role of non-state actors in a new global treaty on plastic pollution”.