COP26: Dangerous waste incineration practices risk undermining climate change targets, warns GAIA

26 Oct 2021 --- Plastic waste incineration is seriously undermining climate change targets ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), according to a report by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).

Over 300 GAIA member organizations worldwide have signed an open letter to COP26 delegates, demanding they close the emissions gap to ensure global temperatures do not rise above 1.5ºC.

The letter also urges governments to exclude “waste-to-energy” incineration from climate plans, stop petrochemical expansion, fossil fuel extraction, reduce plastic production, and avoid schemes like carbon trading and offsets under the guise of a “net-zero” framework. 

Missing opportunities 
GAIA’s report highlights that despite widespread pledges to cut carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, almost 40% of countries still include incineration, pyrolysis and forms of chemical recycling, which GAIA identifies as environmentally damaging.

According to the alliance, burning one ton of waste will produce at least the same amount of GHG.

Composting is an essential solution to waste disposal, proposes GAIA.“With the climate crisis growing more urgent and deadly every day, governments are missing an important chance to employ zero waste as a common-sense, affordable strategy toward zero emissions and a sustainable economy,” says Dr. Neil Tangri, science and policy director at GAIA.

“Ending bad practices such as the burning of waste and the overproduction of plastic will create new job and business opportunities in reuse, repair, recycling, and organics treatment.” 

However, the report also commends 35 countries to propose organic waste collection and composting strategies – the most effective means to reduce methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 81 times more powerful than CO2 (over 20 years).

Vietnam’s waste alliance 
A key example of missed opportunities at the COP26 conference is Vietnam’s set of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – projects pledged by national governments to maintain the Paris Climate Agreement’s target of keeping global temperatures below 1.5ºC. 

While Thi Xuan, coordinator of the Vietnam Zero Waste Alliance, says he applauds Vietnam for including waste among prioritized sectors for GHG mitigation in its NDC for 2021-2030, he asserts the country is facing “considerable growth” (19% in 2020-2030) in emissions from the waste sector under its domestic funding scenario. 

“We think that Vietnam could set a much more ambitious goal if the right solutions to waste emissions reduction are pursued, for example, the complete phase-out of single-use plastic by 2040 and of incineration by 2050, both of which cause significant emissions,” he says. Despite the environmental dangers of waste incineration practices, almost 40% of countries plan to continue using them.

“We also propose the inclusion of goals for the comprehensive implementation of waste segregation as stated in the Law on Environmental Protection 2020.” 

GAIA’s report implicates several banks in promoting and promulgating waste incineration throughout the country. Pipeline projects are currently being funded by international financial institutions like the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank in Hanoi and the Bac Ninh province, none of which have undergone stakeholder consultations. 

Waste pickers and worker’s rights 
Despite having a significant sector of informal waste workers, Vietnam has omitted any discussion of environmental justice, gender and equity, rights for informal workers, or community engagement for the waste sector through its impending delegation at the COP26, says GAIA. 

As a result, it will cost the country an important opportunity to fight poverty and create thousands of good jobs, reads the report.

This year, PackagingInsights discussed a waste picker income program launched by Dow and Mr. Green Africa in Kenya, highlighting how additional income for informal workers can be coupled with the drive to increase the collection of flexible plastic waste. 

By Louis Gore-Langton