Earth’s limits pushed by chemical pollution as UN environment meeting nears

The UN Environment Assembly, which will begin in Nairobi on 28 February, will be working to develop a legally binding international treaty on plastic pollution. This comes as one study claims that the production of chemicals and plastics has already outpaced our ability to assess and monitor them, and in doing so threatening critical systems that we depend on.

The researchers behind the new study conclude that chemical pollution has crossed a planetary boundary. The idea of planetary boundaries which define a ‘safe operating space’ for humanity was proposed more than a decade ago. Nine were identified – including climate, biodiversity and ocean acidification. Breaching those thresholds would cause large scale or irreversible environmental change.