Angola President João Lourenço has formed a working group to draft a national plan to ban plastics to address environmental degradation and regulate the production and use of non-biodegradable products.
In a presidential order, quoted by state-owned Jornal de Angola, Mr Lourenço states that there are “worrying levels of pollution resulting from the use of plastics in general”.
Angola, with a 1,600-kilometre coastline, has no policy in place to restrict the use of plastic.
The UN says more than 800 marine and coastal species are affected by plastics pollution through ingestion and entanglement, while around 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flows into the ocean annually. The UN warns that this could triple by 2040.
The multidisciplinary working group includes heads of Environment, Economy and Planning, Territorial Administration, Education and Telecommunications, Information Technology and Media dockets, coordinated by the Minister of State in the office of the President.
Others are representatives from business associations, academia and environmentalists.
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