UN panel votes to create treaty to fight plastic pollution

A United Nations panel has agreed to create a legally binding global treaty to address plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, rivers and landscape

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A United Nations panel has agreed to create a legally binding global treaty to address plastic pollution in the world's oceans, rivers and landscape.

The U.N. Environment Assembly voted unanimously Wednesday at its meeting in Kenya's capital Nairobi for a resolution “to end plastic pollution."

It sets the stage for international negotiations designed to produce a treaty by 2024.

“Today we wrote history. Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic," said Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s minister for environment and climate and the assembly's president. “With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure.”