The Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the KfW Group on behalf of the German Federal Government highlighted the development achieved concerning the Clean Oceans Initiative during the IMF/World Bank Group meetings. The partners also welcomed the Spanish Promotional Bank ICO and its commitment to join the initiative.
Dr. Werner Hoyer, EIB President stated that “we will not solve the global climate and environment crisis without protecting and cleaning up the world’s oceans. To achieve this, partnership is key.”
He also referred to his pleasure seeing the initiative successful, sending a message to European development finance institutions are working effectively together to address global challenges and to strengthen Europe’s leadership on climate action around the world.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
In fact, the Clean Oceans Initiative has provided more than EUR 700 million long-term financing for projects to reduce and recycle marine litter and waste collected on land, especially plastics and untreated wastewater discharge after its first year of operation.
The goal of the initiative is to finance EUR 2 billion in public and private sector projects over five years. So far, some of the projects supported include improved sanitation in Ratmalana and Moratuwa in Sri Lanka; solid waste management in Lomé, Togo; stormwater management and flooding in Cotonou, Benin; water and sanitation in Buenos Aires in Argentina; wastewater management in Cape Town, South Africa; and green urban financing and innovation in the Yangtze River Delta in China.
The Clean Oceans Initiative represents projects that aim to tackle plastic debris in rivers, seas and on land, with a particular focus on riverine and coastal areas in developing countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
A recently-launched report, stated that 75% of plastic bottles found in sea in remote places come from Chinese vessels.
Rémy Rioux, AFD Chief Executive officer, said that “From Sri Lanka to Togo to Argentina, the Clean Oceans Initiative is proving tremendously effective in raising awareness on marine pollution and the importance of healthy oceans in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 14.”
Mr Rioux further noted that the efficiency of the initiative is a clear example of partnerships, calling all development stakeholders to raise their ambition and continue to preserve their common goal on keeping the oceans clean and healthy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvCJModr4_g
KfW CEO Dr. Günther Bräunig further added that
But we would like to go even further and draw the attention also to the Joint Initiative on Circular Economy (JICE), launched in July by various European partners. It goes beyond recycling and starts already at the beginning of circular value chains within the EU with total financings of EUR 10 billion.
In efforts to tackle the environmental pollution, last November, at the 5th edition of Our Ocean conference, in Bali, the European Union announced 23 new commitments for better governance of the oceans and EUR 300 million of EU-funded initiatives, which include projects to tackle plastic pollution, make blue economy more sustainable and improve research and marine surveillance.
In September 2018, Canada and its G7 partners acknowledged the need for action in order to address the impacts that plastic pollution and marine litter, over-exploitation of fish stocks and extreme weather events have on the health and sustainability of the oceans, seas, coastal communities and entire ecosystems.
