First Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics

03/06/2018

#plastic #microplastic # chemicals & waste #ocean #UNEA 


The meeting was held on 29-31 May 2018, under the mandate from the third stand-alone resolution on marine litter and microplastics adopted by the UN Environment Assembly in December 2017.

At this meeting, delegates:

  • exchanged views on the barriers to combatting marine litter and microplastics, discussing the need to prioritize the most significant barriers;
  • considered the work of existing mechanisms addressing this issue, including a new global governance structure; and
  • examined the feasibility and effectiveness of response options in the short-, medium, and long-term.

The Co-Chairs' summary, the main output of the meeting, was agreed to be finalized within two weeks of the closure of this first meeting in order to allow delegations to provide meaningful feedback.

A colleague from Association 3 Herissons was presenting at the meeting venue. It is very hard to see where the discussion will end up with before UNEA 4 as delegates hold super diversified opinions even over the scope of discussion in this meeting.

Association 3 Herissons would argue for a life-cycle view of discussion on this global issue, and would encourage particularly academic scientists to get more involved into this process.

For more details, please refer to the IISD report and the official UN webpage for this meeting.

IISD report 

https://enb.iisd.org/oceans/marine-litter-microplastics/adhoc-oeeg1/html/enbplus186num13e.html