On October 9, 2020, a global workshop was organized by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), located in Potsdam, Germany. The workshop built on the results of the Marine Regions Forum organized by the Government of Germany in October 2019. More details on the Marine Regions Forum could be found at https://www.prog-ocean.org/marine-regions-forum/. The forum strengthened the Partnership for Regional Ocean Governance (PROG), a collaborative initiative by the IASS, Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), and Töpfer, Müller, Gaßner (TMG)-Think Tank for Sustainability together with UN Environment Programme. The PROG and its partners play a significant role in contributing to global discussion on some of the most critical current processes in ocean governance.
The workshop organised by IASS gave a chance for participants with roles ocean governance institutions, i.e. European Commission, National governments, Regional Seas Secretariats, Regional Fisheries Bodies, Regional Economic Organisations, Large Marine Ecosystems Bodies and Projects, and Intergovernmental Research Bodies (e.g. the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, the North Pacific Marine Science Organisation, PICES) form from all over the world to come together in a virtual meeting to discuss the ways to combat plastic pollution globally.
A special discussion was devoted to the need of the establishment of a global instrument or agreement on marine litter and plastics. Despite the fact that such an instrument was welcomed by a number of participants, the challenges of the development and adoption of the instrument at the global scale were also recognised.
In the course of the meeting, participants were split into three working groups to brainstorm on the following issues: i) Addressing land and sea-based sources of pollution, ii) Monitoring, reporting and informing policy, and iii) Cooperation, coordination and partnerships. The NOWPAP representative directly contributed to the discussion on the regional cooperation and partnership building highlighting the vital importance of the marine litter and plastic agenda in the work of its Member States.
At the plenary, specific mention was made about the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to apply the Build-Back-Better approach in order to effectively confront the contemporary challenges of plastics in the ocean. The role of International Instruments, like river basin commissions, and stakeholders across sectors (private sector, industries, NGOs) were recognised as a key to ensure effective monitoring, assessment, and control of plastics in a source-to-sea approach. A closer involvement of international research groups and think tanks was stressed to be a key to ensure Ecosystem-Based approach and the application of Environmental Quality Objectives (EQOs) globally but also with account of specificities of individual geographical regions.
