Representatives from more than 170 nations will meet in Nairobi on Monday to negotiate what concrete measures should be included in a binding worldwide treaty to end plastic pollution.
The activists called for talks to focus on cutting the amount of plastic produced while waving placards with inscriptions "Plastic crisis = climate crisis" and "End multigenerational toxic exposure."
They chanted "let polluters pay the price" as they walked slowly behind a ceremonial band from central Nairobi to a park in the west of the capital.
Climate activists hold banners and chant slogans as they march to demand drastic reduction in global plastic production ahead of the third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3) in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday November 11, 2023.
Last year, nations agreed to finalize a world-first UN treaty by 2024 to address the scourge of plastics found everywhere from mountain tops and the deepest sea trenches to inside human blood streams.
Negotiators have met twice already but Nairobi is the first opportunity to debate a draft treaty published in September that outlines the many pathways to tackling the plastic problem.
"There is a lot of talk on end of pipe solutions which we do not need right now," Tiara Samson, an associate from the ‘’Break Free From Plastic movement," which organized the Saturday march, told AFP.
"Investing in those solutions divert the focus on what we really need to do — which is mandating ambitious targets on plastics reduction", Samson, who traveled from the Philippines, added.
The November 13-19 meeting in Nairobi is the third of five sessions in a fast-tracked process aiming to conclude negotiations next year so the treaty can be adopted by mid-2025.
At the last talks in Paris, France, campaigners accused large plastic-producing nations of deliberately stalling after two days were lost debating procedural points.
This time around, the sessions have been extended by two days but there are still concerns that a weaker treaty could emerge if time for detailed discussion is swallowed up going in circles.
Global plastic production has more than doubled since the start of the century to reach 460 million tons, and it could triple by 2060 if nothing is done.
Less than 10% of plastic waste is currently recycled.
Plastic also contributes to global warming, accounting for 3.4% of global emissions in 2019, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Climate activists hold banners and chant slogans in front of a plastic installation as they march to demand drastic reduction in global plastic production ahead of the third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3) in Nairobi on November 11, 2023.