Deep Dives
Thought-provoking research providing extensive learning opportunities
Back to Blue’s Roadmap to end ocean pollution is a synthesis of insights from hundreds of global leaders across science, industry, policy, business and finance on understanding ocean pollution and how to tackle it.
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Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution
A sustainable and growing blue economy can provide investment opportunities and a significant environmental return.
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New research shows that ocean temperatures are hotter than ever in the modern era due to human-driven global warming.
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Researchers at Ocean Conservancy and University of Toronto estimate that American adults could be consuming up to 3.8 million microplastics per year from protein alone.
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Economist Impact convened the Global Plastics Summit and provided an opportunity for stakeholders to debate the details of the draft treaty.
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Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism
Amsterdam is the latest tourist destination to consider banning cruise ships in a fight against overtourism and pollution.
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How Investor and Company Climate Commitments Ignore Plastics and What to Do About It.
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More companies and investors need to consider plastics in their climate commitments, according to a report released last week by environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy.
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Plastic waste pollutes our environment at an annual rate of over 8m tonnes. However, amid the global conversations surrounding plastic reduction and reuse, one critical aspect often goes overlooked: the lack of formal waste collection for more than 2bn people in the global south.
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Plastic Free July is an annual challenge organized by the Plastic Free Foundation that has been attracting millions of participants worldwide since 2011. Here are 5 tips to help kick-start your journey!
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A guest blog on creating ethical and socially responsible supply chains by Emy Kane, managing director of Lonely Whale, and Michael Sadowski, executive director of The Circulate Initiative.
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Plastic is choking the world’s oceans — threatening vital ecosystems, coastal economies and the health of billions of people who eat contaminated seafood.
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The latest expedition in National Geographic's Pristine Seas initiative has set sail in quest to map and protect the world's oceans.
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“Every year, over 400 million tons of plastic is produced worldwide – one third of which is used just once”, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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The world is finally getting serious about plastic pollution. Next week, delegates from U.N. member states will gather in Paris to debate the shape of what some hope will become the plastic-pollution equivalent of the Paris climate agreement.
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This report examines the economic and business models needed to address the impacts of the plastics economy.
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More than 60 leading plastic waste innovators have joined forces to form a new alliance, as preparations begin for the next round of negotiations for a UN-led treaty to tackle the issue.
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Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism
The Trade and Environment Review 2023 analyses the impacts of human activities and global crises on the ocean economy, which includes traditional sectors such as fishing and shipping, as well as emerging ones like offshore wind energy and marine biotechnology.
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The health of coral reefs, our most biodiverse ocean ecosystem, is fundamentally interconnected with human health. We need urgent global action to tackle the pollution crisis to protect both, explain Stacy Jupiter, Bodhi Patil and Christopher Corbin.
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Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports
The OCAP outlines three goals that mobilize the Federal Government and civil society to take effective and innovative ocean climate action.
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Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism
Today, the European Commission is unveiling a new investor report, on the occasion of the BlueInvest Day 2023.
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As global awareness, science, and policy interventions for plastic escalate, institutions around the world are seeking preventative strategies. Central to this is the need for precise global time series of plastic pollution with which we can assess whether implemented policies are effective, but at present we lack these data.
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Peak plastics is an Economist Impact report for Back to Blue, an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. This report examines the potential impact of three key policies that cover the entire lifecycle of plastic, from production to disposal. These approaches are being considered by negotiators working on a legally binding UN treaty to reduce plastic pollution.
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A compelling new report by the Minderoo Foundation has uncovered that despite rising consumer awareness, corporate attention, and regulation, an additional 6 million metric tons (MMT) of waste was generated in 2021 compared to 2019 — still almost entirely made from fossil fuel-based “virgin” feedstocks.
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Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism
Biodiversity is degrading at alarming rates, and people living in biodiversity-rich areas often bear the heaviest costs of biodiversity loss and inequitable conservation efforts. Biodiversity credits, or ‘biocredits’, are emerging as a tradeable unit of biodiversity that can incentivise nature conservation and restoration to benefit marginalised groups living with nature.
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Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution
Rather than relying solely on plastic equipment, shellfish and seaweed growers are embracing biodegradable alternatives.
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Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022 presents updated and verified statistics of the sector and analyses its international policy context and selected high-impact actions undertaken to accelerate international efforts in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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A comprehensive assessment of pathways towards stopping ocean plastic pollution.
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Plastics are widely recognized as a pervasive marine pollutant. Microplastics have been garnering increasing attention due to reports documenting their ingestion by animals, including those intended for human consumption.
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A new analytical tool can show the main sources of plastic pollution and help governments determine how to best reduce the amount that is reaching the ocean.
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Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism
Why are some species more averse to anthropogenic noise disturbances than others?
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Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution
After two days of discussions and debates, some 40 Heads of State and Government responded positively to the invitation of the President of the French Republic to commit for the ocean at the One Planet Summit for the Ocean in Brest.
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At the end of February, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) will tackle a challenging task: the creation of a landmark treaty to control plastic pollution worldwide.
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A new report commissioned by WWF provides the most comprehensive account to date of the extent to which plastic pollution is affecting the global ocean, the impacts it’s having on marine species and ecosystems, and how these trends are likely to develop in future.
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Developing a common understanding of a jurisdiction’s plastic waste stream and the solutions available to decision-makers is vital to build consensus across stakeholders and to align on an evidence-based portfolio of priority instruments.
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The toxic pollution resulting from rampant overproduction of virgin plastics and their lifecycles is irreversible, directly undermines our health, drives biodiversity loss, exacerbates climate change, and risks generating large-scale harmful environmental changes.
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Research on the environmental impacts from the global value chain of plastics has typically focused on the disposal phase, considered most harmful to the environment and human health. However, the production of plastics is also responsible for substantial environmental, health and socioeconomic impacts.
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Discoveries of persistent coastal species in the open ocean shift our understanding of biogeographic barriers. Floating plastic debris from pollution now supports a novel sea surface community composed of coastal and oceanic species at sea that might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment.
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The United States is a major producer of plastics and in 2016, generated more plastic waste by weight and per capita than any other nation. Although the U.S. solid waste management system is advanced, it is not sufficient to deter leakage into the environment.
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Plastic waste causes harm to marine life and has become a major global environmental concern. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastic, intensifying pressure on this already out-of-control problem.
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As traditional demands for oil – vehicle fuels – are declining as the transport sector is increasingly electrified, the oil industry is seeing plastics as a key output that can make up for losses in other markets. Investing in plastics has therefore become a key strategy for fossil fuel firms.
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Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution
The GoC acts as a sink for ghost nets that originate from regional fishing activities. Despite multijurisdictional management efforts, increasing net numbers shows high regional input of ALDFG.
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As of 2020, the U.S. plastics industry is responsible for at least 232 million tons of CO2e gas emissions per year. This amount is equivalent to the average emissions from 116 average-sized (500-megawatt) coal-fired power plants.
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From Pollution to Solution: A global assessment of marine litter and plastic pollution reveals the impact of marine litter and plastic pollution in the environment and their effects on the health of ecosystems, wildlife and humans.
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The Mediterranean is considered a hot-spot for plastic pollution, due to its semi-enclosed nature and heavily populated coastal areas.
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The great majority of plastics in current use are sourced from fossil fuels, with additional fossil fuels combusted to power their manufacture. Substantial research is focused on finding more sustainable building blocks for next-generation polymers.
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