SDG12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Background

The Misool Marine Reserve protects a complex and extremely biodiverse coral reef system in South Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Raja Ampat is an epicentre of marine biodiversity, with 1,632 described species of fish. The reserve is jointly managed by Misool Foundation and Misool Resort. Misool Resort is a private island resort that uses ecotourism revenue to generate a large proportion of the funding for the reserve. Marit and Andrew Miners founded the project in 2005 by forging a powerful partnership with the local landowners and communities.  

With a population of 250 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country and second-largest plastic polluter in the world after China. The country produces 3.2 million tonnes of unmanaged plastic waste a year, of which about 1.29 million tonnes ends up in the sea (Jambeck, 2015). In addition, approximately 10 billion plastic carry bags, equal to 85,000 tonnes, are released into its local environment each year (MoEF, 2018). This unmanaged plastic waste has also affected Indonesian rivers and the ocean.

According to the World Health Organization, each year an estimated 7 million premature deaths – or 1 in every 9 – are attributed to the joint effects of household and outdoor air pollution. In addition to the impacts on human health, some air pollutants affect ecosystems, threaten food and water security and contribute to climate change. Air pollution is a pressing sustainability concern specified in Sustainable Development Goals 3 (good health and well-being), 7 (clean energy), 11 (sustainable cities), 12 (sustainable consumption and production) and 13 (climate action).

Severe food insecurity and hunger have increased in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and this has been partly attributed to climate change and soil degradation. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of agricultural land in SSA is severely degraded and that production of major food crops including maize will decline by more than 30% by 2050 due to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns.

Listen to the voices of women and men in waste management from Bhutan, Mongolia and Nepal, and learn how waste and gender are linked.

Plastic pollution is a major problem all across Asia.

UNEP and partners have been working through the CounterMEASURE project to determine the sources of plastic pollution in the Mekong and Ganges rivers using a novel combination of technologies, including drones, GIS and machine learning. With this information, we are able to recommend measures that can be taken to beat plastic pollution.

The attention on plastic pollution has intensified in recent years among national governments and the global community. The ‘National Guidance for Plastic Pollution Hotspotting and Shaping Action’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Guidance’) aims to provide a structure for the methods of identifying plastic leakage ‘hotspots’, finding their impacts along the entire plastic value chain, and then prioritising actions once these hotspots are identified.

The scope of this study is pollution from marine plastic in Southeast Asia and East Asia, with a focus on the 13 member states of ASEAN+3: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam (Vietnam), plus The People's Republic of China (China), Japan and The Republic of Korea (RO Korea) The objective is to provide a comprehensive review of the current knowledge and scientific research on pollution from marine plastics in ASEAN+3, as well as the approaches and work streams on this topic by internat

Developed by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, “Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution” presents a first-of-its-kind model of the global plastics system. It is an evidence-based roadmap that describes how to radically reduce ocean plastic pollution by 2040 and shows there is a comprehensive, integrated, and economically attractive pathway to greatly reduce plastic waste entering our ocean.