MANILA, Nov. 25 -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday expressed the Philippines' readiness to forge cooperation with global partners to address plastic pollution, which he described as "emblematic of this new era of challenges."

Marcos acknowledged that the plastic waste crisis affects biodiversity, public health, supply chains, and the lives of coastal and urban communities, and requires the use of technology that is "credible, scalable, (and) grounded in rigorous science" to address the problem.

He welcomed the NUclear TEChnology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) initiative of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a "very important solution to a very difficult problem that we face," locally and gl...