This event, hosted by the new Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics, and supported by the Forum on Trade, Environment, & SDGs (TESS), brought together a regionally diverse panel of INC members and experts to:

• canvass the evidence to date on the impacts of plastic pollution on human health,
• explore opportunities to address these impacts in the future international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution to ensure the protection of human health and the environment, and
• highlight the contribution that the new Lancet Countdown on Plastics and Health can make as an independent data source to inform decision-making at all levels for the benefit of public health.

Agenda

Welcome and Opening Remarks

• Maria Neira – Former Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change, and Health, WHO (retired)
• Richard Horton – Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet

Panel of Experts

• Martin Wagner – Co-Author of The Lancet report, and Co-Lead of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics working group on production and emissions
• Jane Muncke – Co-Author of The Lancet report, and Co-Lead of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics working group on exposures
• Christos Symeonides – Co-Author of The Lancet report, and member of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics working group on health impacts
• Jo Banner – Co-Founder & Co-Director, The Descendants Project
• John Chweya – President, Kenya National Waste Pickers Welfare Association

Moderated by Tiza Mafira – Director, Climate Policy Initiative

Panel of Government Representatives

• Wilfrid Deri – Ministry of State, Department of External Relations and Cooperation, Monaco
• Sam Adu-Kumi – National / Regional Expert on Chemicals and Waste, Ghana
• Sivendra Michael - Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Fiji
• ⁠Jorge Emmanuel - Science Expert, Philippine Delegation to the INC
• Andrea Zbinden – Senior Policy Advisor and National Focal Point for UNEP and INC Plastic Pollution, Federal Office for the Environment, Switzerland

Moderated by Carolyn Deere Birkbeck – Executive Director, Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS)