Marine Litter in the context of ‘G7’ – Nothing but empty rhetoric?

The G7 summit 2015 in Germany has demonstrated that the major advanced economies mark a new path and mindset beyond their classical issues of world economy, foreign-, security-, and development policy - the protection of the marine environment. Focus themes were marine litter, deep-sea mining, and the protection of the high seas. In the G7 Leaders’ Declaration they “acknowledge that marine litter, in particular plastic litter, poses a global challenge, directly affecting marine and coastal life and ecosystems […]”. Based on priority actions defined in the annex to the Leaders’ Declaration, termed the ‘G7 Action Plan to combat Marine Litter’ (G7AP ML), in fact a novelty to the otherwise rather restrained political statements, the German Presidency aims at further defining and specifying actions that are listed in the ‘G7AP ML’. This will include inter alia explicit measures and timelines. Emphasizing the global importance and willingness of the G7 to act, and aiming at a swift implementation of the action plan with the intention to establish a real and realistic tool in the race of litter input vs. reduction of anthropogenic pressure on the marine environment, is key to the envisaged approach.

Thus, building on existing experiences, such as the OSPAR Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter for the North-East Atlantic, it is intended to expand the geographical range of application towards a global perspective.

What has been learned – e.g. concerning the need of close collaboration with stakeholders? What has been decided - on how implementation may be done in reality? And is the ‘G7AP ML’ a valuable add-on to other initiatives, e.g. Global Partnership on Marine Litter - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)? These questions will be discussed in the light of the state of the art of the G7 marine litter topic.