Plastic Pollution and Climate Change: A Global Challenge
Plastic Pollution: A Global Threat
Plastic pollution affects every corner of our planet – from the deepest ocean trenches to the most remote valleys – silently yet significantly contributing to climate change. It disrupts habitats, ecosystems, and biodiversity, affecting both animal and plant species and ultimately threatening livelihoods. This leads to environmental, health, social, and economic challenges. Each year, an estimated 19-23 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems. The impact extends beyond the environment, with growing concern over microplastics being found in human blood and lungs through contaminated food and water. These particles poseincreasing risks to human health, including potential effects on the reproductive system and long-term developmental disorders, underscoring the urgent need to address plastic pollution for the well-being of both nature and humanity.
Global plastic pollution is projected to double by 2040 compared to 2019 levels if current trends continue and waste is not effectively recycled, landfilled, or incinerated. Plastic production has already more than doubled in the past two decades. Shockingly, half of all plastic produced is used only once, with 85% of single-use plastic packaging ending up in landfills or as unregulated waste. Every day, the equivalent of over 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic is dumped into water bodies. This contributes to the deaths of more than 100,000 marine animals annually through entanglement or ingestion of ocean plastic waste.
Although plastic recycling is increasing, the global reality remains stark:
46% of plastic waste is landfilled
22% is mismanaged and becomes litter
17% is incinerated
15% is collected for recycling – but less than 9% is actually recycled after losses (UNEP, 2023)
Plastics production and disposal now account for approximately 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This underscores the inextricable link between plastic pollution and the climate crisis.
Paris Agreement and Global Plastics Treaty
The Paris Agreement Source: World Economic Forum
The statistics may be alarming, but there has been a growing global effort – from international organisations to grassroots communities – to combat plastic pollution. In 2015, at COP21, 195 parties adopted the landmark Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The agreement emphasises the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to well below 2°C, ideally to 1.5°C.
Since most plastics are derived from fossil fuels, there has been increasing recognition that addressing plastic pollution is also essential to achieving climate goals. This has sparked broader discussions and actions linking plastic reduction with climate mitigation.
In 2022, more than 175 nations adopted a historic resolution at the United Nations Environment Assembly to develop a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastic – from production and design to consumption, disposal, and pollution. Negotiations are ongoing and expected to conclude by August 2025.
Key actions under discussion in the treaty negotiations include:
Mandating minimum recycled content in plastic products
Imposing caps on virgin plastic production
Increasing investment in waste management infrastructure
Expanding recycling capacity globally
Introducing levies or taxes on plastic packaging (e.g. plastic bags and wrappers)
Beyond the treaty negotiations, voluntary global initiatives have also made measurable progress. Since 2018, over 1,000 organisations have joined the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Representing roughly 20% of the world’s plastic packaging market, these businesses have collectively reduced unnecessary plastic use, stabilised their consumption of virgin plastics, and doubled their share of recycled content. These efforts have avoided an estimated 2.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite these positive steps, the path toward eliminating plastic pollution remains difficult. The lack of a finalised global legal framework, alongside uneven levels of commitment and accountability among governments and businesses, continues to pose major challenges to achieving a sustainable and plastic-free future.
Tourism and the Global Tourism Plastic Initiative (GTPI)
Building on global policy frameworks such as the Paris Agreement and the Global Plastics Treaty, the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI), launched in 2020 by UNEP and UN Tourism, specifically mobilises the tourism sector in the fight against plastic pollution. The initiative calls on tourism stakeholders to eliminate unnecessary plastic items, innovate sustainable alternatives, and circulate plastic materials through better reuse and recycling.
GTPI is critical in aligning tourism businesses with global climate and sustainability goals. The tourism sector has a significant footprint in the plastics value chain. According to the WWF, plastic pollution in coastal and marine areas can increase by up to 40% during peak tourism seasons, especially in heavily visited regions such as the Mediterranean. This highlights the direct link between tourism activity and plastic pollution.
Tourism-related plastic use – from travel and accommodation to food services and recreational activities – is often single-use by design, intended for convenience and immediately discarded. This throwaway culture results in the accumulation of plastic waste in some of the world’s most beautiful and ecologically sensitive destinations, threatening both biodiversity and the long-term sustainability of tourism itself.
The high levels of plastic pollution not only harm the environment but also deter tourists from visiting affected destinations, creating a vicious cycle that damages local communities, the tourism industry, and the planet. In response, GTPI tackles the root causes of plastic pollution by empowering businesses, governments, and other stakeholders to take concrete action and serve as leading examples of sustainable practice.
GTPI signatories commit to progress across five key action areas, accompanied by annual reporting and public disclosure of their achievements. Signatories include a diverse range of actors such as accommodation providers, tour operators, travel agencies, destination management organisations (DMOs), national tourism organisations, governments at various levels, and suppliers of plastic packaging or packaged goods to tourism businesses.
In 2022, the number of GTPI signatories increased by 25%, with accommodation providers in the Asia Pacific driving much of this growth. The region has seen a strong post-pandemic recovery, with international tourist arrivals projected to reach 813.7 million by 2027, up from an estimated 648.1 million in 2024. However, this surge also risks escalating plastic pollution, particularly in the oceans.
Many tourist hotspots across the Asia Pacific have been introducing laws to better manage plastic pollution. Nevertheless, the region’s rapid tourism growth, combined with gaps in waste management systems, underscores the urgent need for coordinated action among governments, businesses, and communities. The Asia Pacific not only faces significant risks from plastic pollution but also holds immense potential to lead the transformation toward sustainable plastic use in tourism.
This article is part one of our series exploring the pressing issue of plastics. Stay tuned for our next post exclusively focusing on the plastic pollution challenges in the Asia Pacific.
For any questions or further information, feel free to get in touch with us at pm@pata.org.
