June 19 (LTIT) –The G-20 member countries have reached an agreement to jointly tackle ocean plastic waste. The agreement was reached during the G-20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth held June 15-16 at Karuizawa, Nagano Japan prior to G-20 Summit scheduled to be held June 28-29 in Osaka, Japan.

The environment ministers from member countries agreed to adopt a broad international framework to decide upon actions to tackle marine plastic waste across the globe. The new framework is aimed at formulating specific concrete actions on marine waste on voluntary basis. The framework commits to implement various measures to prevent and reduce plastic litter discharge, ensuring international cooperation. The member countries have also agreed to boost innovation and share best practices for the benefit of other countries.

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At the conclusion of the two-day meeting, Yoshiaki Harada, Japan’s environmental minister noted that the group comprising of developing and emerging countries will take voluntary measures, which will be reported periodically. The program is voluntary and will be tracked regularly in order to ensure effectiveness, he said. He further added that Japan will host the first meeting under the new framework this November.

The deal is considered as an important step to tackling plastic waste. Estimates suggest that only less than 10% of plastics produced worldwide are recycled.