Lab grown fish could be a game changer here in Asia because our waters are becoming more and more overfished. And it turns out marine life in the ocean creates one of the largest carbon sinks on the planet. So losing fish species could disrupt the marine life food chain, putting this amazing ocean carbon sink at risk. But before we talk about lab grown fish as a climate change solution, we first have to understand the history of this overfishing problem in Asia and the importance of fish delicacies to the food culture here.

The episode was produced in partnership with FairPlanet - a global non-profit social enterprise and solutions media organisation founded in 2014 in Berlin with over 200 specialised journalists and experts in 60 countries.

Guests (in order of appearance):

Stan Shea, National Geographic Explorer and Recipient of the Pew Fellowship, Bloom (HK)

Tracy Fu, Hong Kong

Dr. Kenneth Lee, Emeritus Professor, School of BioMedical Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Carrie Chan, CEO, Avant Meats

Dr. Luxing Liu, Previous Director, School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong

Production credits:

Executive Producer: Marcy Trent Long

Co-Host and Producer: Chermaine Lee

Sound Engineer: Estima

Associate Producers: Sam LiXiaoYu, Zack Chiang

Contributing Editor: Jill Baxter

Intro/outro music: Alex Mauboussin

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We're back partnering again with the Break Free From Plastic movement to feature NGO advocates in Asia. In this episode. we are going to hone in on one of the big open questions at the April 2024 INC4 talks. How should the treaty deal with problematic plastics and chemicals of concern?

The US EPA recently banned certain PFAS chemicals in drinking water. And Switzerland called for an initial list of problematic plastics to be worked out by year end 2024. With short time left to negotiate the plastics treaty there is a forward movement to finally regulate toxic chemicals in plastics. But we want to take a step back and give more background to what are chemicals of concern in plastic for consumers and advocates alike. Then, at the end of this episode, we'll circle back to how these problematic plastics can be regulated both in and out of the treaty.

Guests:

1. Madhuvanthi Rajkumar, Researcher in environment and climate action and solid waste management at Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, or CAG, in India. She represents consumer consituency at the Global Plastics Treaty meetings.

2. Jam Lorenzo, Policy development and research head, Ban Toxics in the Philippines.

3. Jorge Emmanuel, Adjunct professor of environmental science and of engineering at Silliman University in the Philippines. He's also an official member of the Philippine Philippine Treaty Delegation

Production credits:

Host: Marcy Trent Long

Producer: Carol Mang

Intro/outro music: Alex Mauboussin

Sign up to find out when new Sustainable Asia seasons are launched!

We have partnered with Break Free From Plastic (BFFP), headquartered in Asia, to produce this series. BFFP has numerous resources on their website about the Global Plastics Treaty:

You can also refer to: GAIA's treaty page and GAIA’s Asia Pacific treaty page

And check out CIEL's paper on UN procedural tools used to block plastic treaty progress.

We have a great new episode discussing the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty from the view of Break Free from Plastic advocates here in Asia. Our guests today have been working for decades to reduce plastic pollution at its source. Just a brief tip though… if you haven’t tuned into previous episodes in this SEASON you might want to … it will catch you up on where we are at with the plastic treaty negotiations!

Well, the third meeting of the Global Plastics Treaty - otherwise called INC3 - ended last November and the Revised Zero Draft of the treaty is out… But there wasn’t a lot of progress during those INC3 meetings.

For this episode, we are partnering with Break Free from Plastic (or BFFP) to get their members' views as we gear up for the next treaty negotiations at INC-4 in April. BFFP has more than 12,000 organizations and individuals around the world working together to demand reductions in single use plastics and advocate for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis.

Guests:

1. Arpita Bhagat - Plastic Policy Officer, GAIA Asia Pacific - based in India. GAIA is a network of more than 1000 organizations from 92 countries, whose vision is a just, zero waste world free from the burden of toxic pollution, where resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped.

2. Semee Rhee - Global Policy Advisor with BFFP in Korea. Semee represents BFFP in the plastics treaty process.

3. Mageswari Sangaralingam is the Honorary Secretary at Sahabat Alam Malaysia based in Penang and is a research officer with the Consumers' Association of Penang for the past 32 years. She represented Sahabat Alam Malaysia - or Friends of the Earth Malaysia - at the INC-3 plastics treaty meeting.

Production credits:

Host: Marcy Trent Long

Producer: Carol Mang

Intro/outro music: Alex Mauboussin

Sign up to find out when new Sustainable Asia seasons are launched!

We have partnered with Break Free From Plastic (BFFP), headquartered in Asia, to produce this series. BFFP has numerous resources on their website about the Global Plastics Treaty:

You can also refer to: GAIA's treaty page and GAIA’s Asia Pacific treaty page

And check out CIEL's paper on UN procedural tools used to block plastic treaty progres.