Racing for Clean Seas

The Clean Seas supported side-event at the UN Ocean Conference brings together Clean Seas partners to discuss the critical role partnerships have played in the campaign’s mission to raise public awareness in acting against marine litter and encouraging governments across the globe to implement policies and initiatives strategically focused on plastic pollution prevention.

Through a unified voice and shared values in the mission of the Clean Seas Campaign, this event provides a platform for Clean Seas partners to discuss the different ways in which they are inspiring change, encouraging good business practices, and transforming individual behaviors to scale up ocean action, science, and innovation to end plastic pollution, through the power of sport. This side event is unique in that it provides a dialogue on the ways in which sport, and sport organizations, are addressing the global problem of marine litter and plastic pollution. This panel serves as an opportunity to highlight the unique platform sport provides in amplifying the message of the need for environmental action and outlines the reasons why and how governmental agencies should work with sport organizations to build capacity and knowledge around the negative impact of the plastic lifecycle and its effects on our waterways.

The panel will discuss the different ways in which they are engaging their local communities to devise innovative solutions to improve community efforts and citizen science around marine pollution as well as the role partnerships play in creating global action and inspiring new policy and legislative changes from governmental institutions. 

We would also like to use this opportunity to announce and celebrate new members joining the Clean Seas campaign. We are inviting key representatives from the United States, the European Commission, and Portugal to share and reflect on their voluntary commitments to “turn the tide” on marine litter and plastic pollution, highlight their success stories in this focus area, and consider actionable steps forward in the context of the Ocean Decade and the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) process. In joining UNEP, the IOC, and Clean Seas partners, Clean Seas members will have the opportunity to further comment on the importance for collaboration between the public and private sectors and the ways in which sport can create a unique opportunity and platform to encourage new policies and initiatives to combat plastic pollution at the government, industry, and civil society levels.

Source: UN Environment Programme

Taxonomy

• Beat Plastic Pollution