Nairobi, Feb. 27 -- Our health, livelihoods and planet are at stake due to the worsening climate crisis. In February last year, a severe tropical cyclone Freddy made its first landfall in Southern Africa, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and a trail of destruction in its wake after ripping through Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar.

In recent years, the world has faced three most pressing environmental issues: climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, simply referred to as the triple planetary crisis. All the three crises have different causes and effects but one thing in common: plastics.

Plastic production continues to wreak havoc as 99 percent of plastics begin as fossil fuel. Greenhouse gases are emitted at each stage of th...