In support of a plastic-free Moana, or Pacific Ocean, the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion at the Twenty-fifth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP25) will operate under environmentally friendly principles.
As guardians of the world’s largest ocean, and as citizens of Large Ocean States, the Pacific have demonstrated global leadership in the fight against plastic pollution. Several countries in the Pacific have implemented bans on single-use plastic bags and straws, in a bid to reduce the amount of plastic litter that enters the Pacific Ocean.
Bringing the Pacific voice to the UNFCCC COP25 this year, the commitment from the Pacific region for a clean ocean will also be visible at the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion with several initiatives that call upon pavilion visitors to play a key role.
“We are asking visitors to our pavilion to be ‘tidy ocean champions’ and make sure they remove all waste they bring with them when they visit our pavilion, be it used coffee cups or papers,” said Ms Nanette Woonton of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
“We have over 65 events happening at the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion this year, each of which will be rated under a blue wave system in which stars are to be awarded for those events that follow the side events guidelines, distribute very little paper, and remove all waste left behind from their event. Full blue stars indicate a tidy ocean champion event.”
It is estimated that over 150 million tonnes of plastics have accumulated in the world's oceans and that approximately 80% of marine litter is land-based.
To help address this issue, the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion are encouraging all events to be single-use plastic free and will be distributing reusable bags, have free water dispensers available for visitors to fill their water bottles, and will also be using digital innovation in sharing resources.
“The Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion is a Pacific partnership supported by New Zealand with Fiji – two countries, along with many others in our Pacific region, that have shown leadership in reducing single-use plastics,” said Ms Woonton.
“We now call upon all our visitors to the Pavilion to showcase their commitment for a healthy, clean ocean and ask them to ‘Choose to Reuse’ and reduce their waste.”
The results of the blue wave rating system of stars will be visible on the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion app, which can be downloaded from Google Play of the App Store. All you need to do is download Attendify and search for Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, create your profile and join!
For more information on the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, please visit www.pacific-pavilion.com or email [email protected].