Goal achieved ! Marine plastic waste introduced for the first time in the chemicals Conventions

During the last Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (April-May 2017, Genève), it was officially approved by the Plenary that the Regional Centers of the Stockholm and Basel Conventions can officially work on the issue of marine plastic waste and microplastics. The Regional Centers from now can consistently report their activities on the issue to the next COP which will take place in 2019

The resolution states that the COP encourages regional and subregional centers interested to work, under the Convention, on the impact of plastic waste, marine plastic litter, microplastic, and measures for prevention and environmentally sound management, and that work should be reflected in the report presented to the next COP.

This achievement would not have been possible without the support of the working group on marine plastic waste led by SCP/RAC (see news here), and also the support of many delegates during the COP which contributed to bring forward the issue in the Technical Assistance group and the Plenary.

This is a modest first step, but there is still a long way to achieve the full prevention and reduction of the harmful impacts of plastic waste, marine plastic litter and microplastics in our oceans and seas.

From SCP/RAC, as a Regional Centre working for both the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean and as a regional center for capacity building and technology transfer of the Stockholm Convention, we are deeply committed to follow our work in that area.

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