A global ocean free from the harmful impacts of pollution
Pollution, climate change, and nature loss together constitute a deeply intertwined ‘triple planetary crisis,’ yet pollution is the forgotten third of the triangle. This complexity means that, despite the potentially catastrophic impact of pollution on the ocean, our collective knowledge about its extent and its effect on marine ecosystems is extremely limited.
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Context
It is not possible to create a global ‘map’ of ocean pollution nor draw robust conclusions about the combined and cumulative impact of pollutants on ocean health—or of the interdependencies between climate change and nature loss in the ocean.
That’s why Back to Blue, an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation, has published, A global ocean free from the harmful impacts of pollution: Roadmap for action.
Approach
The roadmap envisages a collaborative, co-ordinated and global approach to harmonise existing projects, catalyse new initiatives and increase momentum for action. It recommends:
Establishing a high-level, global, multistakeholder co-ordinating task force, supported by a secretariat.
Publishing a Global Ocean Pollution Assessment and Action Plan every five years.
Establishing four independent stakeholder groups focused on science, data, policy, and business and finance.
Convening a network of independently operated and funded implementation partners from across the UN, universities, and the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, to work collaboratively.
In this podcast, The Action Exchange's Jessica Brown, who has led a two-year stakeholder engagement project to inform the roadmap’s recommendations, speaks with Economist Impact’s Naka Kondo the critical need to close the marine pollution data gap and why the roadmap matters.
