The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has extended support to the Indo-Pacific region on a joint programme with UNCTAD that works with governments, researchers and businesses to reduce manufacturing’s environmental footprint in developing countries.
The Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) programme, which the FDCO and UNCTAD have been implementing in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia since 2019, helps countries better align environmental and industrial policies by identifying appropriate plastic substitutes based on local raw materials For example, the programme currently supports the development of biodegradable fishing nets in the Democratic Republic of Congo and alternative mulch films used in the agriculture and food packaging sector in Nigeria.
“The Indo-Pacific region is home to countries that are extremely vulnerable to the consequences of environmental damage and plastic pollution. But these countries have a strong will to move away from a plastic-intensive economy and are eager to develop the productive capacities needed to do so,” said Teresa Moreira, officer-in-charge of UNCTAD’s division on international trade and commodities.
As part of initial activities in the Indo-Pacific region, UNCTAD co-hosted the second Global South Nexus Conference at Curtin University, Australia, where an updated dashboard from the programme was presented. It compares the environmental impact of replacing plastic with several substitutes.
“The updated dashboard will help the region’s policymakers assess the trade-offs associated with various plastic substitutes,” Ms Moreira said.
Why the Indo-Pacific region?
The Indo-Pacific is a vast marine region of two dozen countries connected and surrounded by water – from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean’s western and central zones. Many of the nation’s businesses and people rely on the ocean for trade, food, jobs and income.
Fiji, for example, exported almost $85 million of processed fish, making it the island nation’s second most exported product. About 31 million people work in the fishing sector in the Asia Pacific region.
But the region’s manufacturing sectors – along with “floating islands” of plastic pollution arriving from other continents – are harming its marine biodiversity through the widespread use of plastic packaging and products, as well as discarded and lost fishing gear. The impact threatens the fishing industries and hinders the hospitality sector’s recovery.
“The examination of plastic management services and material substitutes can offer a sustainable solution for the environment and ocean-based industries in the region. The SMEP programme can provide tangible results, as it works with both policy enablers and experiences from on-the-ground projects,” said Jonathan Hassall, lead adviser at FCDO.
North-South collaboration
Countries in the Indo-Pacific region have many natural resources that could be used to develop a nature-based substitute for plastics. These include minerals, coconut husks, agricultural residues and algae. But many companies in the region lack the technologies and capacities needed to produce nature-based plastic substitutes at a scale that would make them profitable.
Scaling up the production of plastic substitutes in the region will depend on strengthening collaboration between developed and developing countries. And this is at the heart of the SMEP programme. By facilitating policy discussions that enable the required technology and funding from the global North, the programme will help the region overcome these problems and boost the production of plastic substitutes.
“Intellectual property and productive capacities in the Indo-Pacific region could really benefit from access to markets in the global North, allowing for the expansion of novel solutions invented in the global South,” said Atiq Zaman, from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute in Australia, where the SMEP dashboard is used.
As part of the programme extension, UNCTAD plans two studies – one on the services dimensions of plastic pollution mitigation and another focusing on specific sectors where the material transition is important for developing countries.
Technical assistance is also planned to help governments in the region strengthen their messaging at the Intergovernmental negotiating committee on the plastic pollution process and the World Trade Organization Dialogue on Plastic Pollution.