What Does the Paris Climate Agreement Say about Waste?
By Eric Lombardi, Waste 360.
The world has been heatedly debating the significance of the Paris climate agreement since it was published in December. Some see it as a historic moment of global cooperation while others call it a landmark failure to hold countries truly accountable for their climate impacts and nothing more than empty words. Whatever one thinks, it does appear to be true what the Guardian newspaper said in the U.K., “The whole world agreed, we need to stop delaying and start getting serious about preventing a climate crisis. We’ve turned the corner; climate denial is no longer being taken seriously.”
Waste (finally) mattered in Paris
Skim through the official Paris Agreement and you won’t find the word “waste” even mentioned. But if you had tuned into the side rooms, the street protests, formal meetings and the negotiations where the real work was being done to figure out how we’re going to actually meet the Paris goals and you would find the subjects of recycling, composting, minimizing waste and the concept of Zero Waste emerged as priority solutions for a carbon-free future.