Building global momentum towards managing marine plastic pollution through Sustainable Development Goal 14

Sustainable Development Goal 14 target 1 on marine pollution (SDG 14.1) has been instrumental in building momentum towards a coordinated response to the plastic pollution crisis facing the world’s ocean. The 2017 United Nations Ocean Conference saw a record number of registered voluntary commitments related to stemming plastic pollution, from local grassroots action to scientific research, as well as government initiatives limiting single use plastics. The voluntary commitments also contain examples of industry initiatives and regional strategies towards addressing plastic pollution. The bottom-up nature of these voluntary
commitments highlighted the urgency of the situation from multiple perspectives, contained response measures developed by multiple actors, while collectively emphasizing that such actions were taken in isolation and global coordination was lacking.

By the time of the second UN Ocean Conference in June 2022, the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) had, in March 2022, already adopted a resolution to develop by 2025 an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. This international instrument is currently under negotiation and is facing contentious discussions influenced by petroleum interests. However, the very existence of these negotiations is owed to a large degree to the grassroots momentum built through SDG 14.1, and the growing public concern about linkages between plastic pollution and human health (SDG 3) and nascent national blue economies (SDG 14.7). This paper will trace the pathway through which SDG 14 voluntary commitments, from local to global, have led by example while building a global sense of urgency to addressing the plastic pollution crisis. Based on selected case studies, the paper will provide examples of how local communities, scientists, governments, and industry have experienced and responded to the crisis. Lessons learned from these local examples will be provided with the aim of linking local measures and priorities to the global level in a way that can inform how the plastic pollution treaty is both negotiated and implemented.