The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP, Nairobi / Kenya; www.unep.org) has launched a regional coalition to support Latin America and the Caribbean’s transition to a circular economy. The coalition aims to implement a circular economy approach through collaboration between governments, businesses and society. UNEP said it will support access to financing by governments and the private sector, with emphasis on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to promote resource mobilisation for innovation and the implementation of specific projects in the region.

Carlos Correa, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia and chair of the coalition, said it is essential to build a common regional vision on circular economy. “The coalition we are launching today will help precisely to do that and to implement concrete and measurable practices,” he added. The coalition was launched during a virtual side event at the “XXII Meeting of the Forum of Ministers of Environment” of the region, hosted by Barbados and UNEP.

UNEP’s regional director in Latin America and the Caribbean, Leo Heileman, said, “Acknowledging that unsustainable consumption and production patterns are the root cause of the three planetary crises we face today – climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss – we have a unique opportunity to rethink our linear economy and reshape our unsustainable consumption and production patterns.”

Coordinated by UNEP, the regional coalition will be led by a steering committee composed of four high-level government representatives on a rotating basis, starting with Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Peru for the 2021-2022 period. It will have eight permanent strategic partners: the Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN), the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy Coalition (PACE), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the World Economic Forum (WEF) and UNEP.

A circular economy eliminates waste and pollution, keeps products and materials in use, and regenerates natural systems, UNEP said. Adopting these principles can reduce the use of raw materials by up to 99%, contributing to the protection of biodiversity, it added.

Plasteurope.com has reported on plans of numerous countries across Latin America and the Caribbean to restrict single-use plastics (SUPs) in order to reduce their impact on the environment – which have already come into force or will do so by 2021 (see Plasteurope.com of 19.10.2018). Plastics recycling projects with industry support have been planned in Haiti, for instance, and most recently, Mexico City prohibited the sale and distribution of all SUP bags (see Plasteurope.com of 11.06.2019 and 14.01.2021).