In the framework of this year’s G7 Ministers of Environment Meeting, UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) in collaboration with the French Presidency and support by the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, organized a successful second Workshop on the Implementation of the G7 Action Plan to Combat Marine Litter, in Synergy with the Regional Seas Conventions.
This workshop builds upon the similar event held in 2017, under the then Italian G7 Presidency. It involves G7 Countries, Regional Seas Programmes to which G7 Countries are party and a number of stakeholders from intergovernmental mechanisms, civil society, and industry.
The workshop provided the opportunity for a robust exchange of views on issues such as harmonization of monitoring and assessment methodologies and frameworks, involvement of fisheries bodies, engagement of civil society, and dialogue with the plastic industry. It demonstrated that encouraging progress in response to marine litter is happening at the Regional Seas level, progress that is in line with the objectives and the priority actions of the G7 Action Plan to Combat Marine Litter. Marine litter impacts communities in an unequal way around the world, and this is one of the reasons why with their diversity and specificities, the Regional Seas Programmes are most appropriate mechanisms for the effective implementation of the G7 Action Plan and other global targets, as recognized by the G7 Ministers in their 2017 Bologna Communiqué.
On behalf of UN Environment/MAP, its Coordinator Mr. Gaetano Leone, presented the main outcomes of the workshop as an input to the Ministerial session deliberations during the debate on the “initiatives presented and solutions to combat pollution, a major pressure on biodiversity, oceans and climate” of the session “Concrete solutions for climate and biodiversity”.
