The Marine Environment Protection Committee
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Resolutions - Marine Environment Protection Committee - Resolution MEPC.310(73) - Action Plan to Address Marine Plastic Litter from Ships - (adopted on 26 October 2018) - The Marine Environment Protection Committee

The Marine Environment Protection Committee

RECALLING Article 38(e) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization (the Organization) concerning the functions of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (the Committee) conferred upon it by international conventions for the prevention and control of marine pollution from ships,

ACKNOWLEDGING that work to prevent pollution by garbage from ships has been undertaken by the Organization since the adoption of MARPOL Annex V,

ACKNOWLEDGING ALSO the relevance of the work on marine plastic litter undertaken by the Parties to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972 and its 1996 Protocol, including the adoption in 2016 of a "Recommendation to Encourage Action to Combat Marine Litter",

ACKNOWLEDGING FURTHER the relevant work of other international organizations in relation to marine plastic litter, in particular FAO and UN Environment, and the importance of existing cooperation mechanisms, including GESAMP, the Joint FAO/IMO Ad Hoc Working Group on IUU fishing and related matters, and the Global Partnership for Marine Litter,

RECALLING the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development,

RECALLING ALSO that the Assembly, at its thirtieth session, in December 2017, recognized the ongoing problem of marine plastic pollution, as addressed in MARPOL Annex V, which required further consideration as part of a global solution within the framework of ocean governance, in pursuance of the target of Sustainable Development Goal 14 to prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds by 2025,

1 ADOPTS the Action Plan to address marine plastic litter from ships (hereinafter the Action Plan) as set out in the annex to the present resolution;

2 NOTES the application of the Action Plan to all ships, incuding fishing vessels;

3 INVITES the Secretary-General of the Organization to make adequate provisions in the Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme (ITCP) to support relevant follow-up actions of the Action Plan;

4 AGREES to keep the Action Plan under review, with a view to assessing, in 2023, the effectiveness of the actions within the Action Plan against the intended outcomes.


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