On 8 June, the UN World Oceans Day invites us to “marvel at a realm that sustains half the planet’s oxygen, cradles most biodiversity and feeds over a billion people”. Yet by 2025, as countries convene for the third time at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France, the seas remain choked with waste that begins far inland.
In 2021 alone, the UN reports that some 17 million tonnes of debris entered the ocean – a volume set to double or even triple by 2040. Plastic, above all, inflicts the gravest harm. Coastal waters are also choking on agriculture and manufacturing runoff and wastewater, spawning oxygen-depriving algal blooms that drive sea life ashore and endanger fisheries, tourism and local livelihoods.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.1 sets a target to reduce marine pollution, particularly from land by the end of 2025. Now that the deadline has arrived, meeting SDG 14.1 demands more than past pledges: it now hinges on a concerted multi-stakeholder source-to-sea actions that turn commitments into tangible outcomes.
At UNOC3 – the largest multi-stakeholder event for the ocean – the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme steps forward to translate that ambition to action through three pillars: policy engagement, scientific dialogue and public outreach. Underpinned by these pillars and faced with the notion that marine pollution is a transboundary challenge, SMEP’s upstream work tackles pollution at its source, looking at it from regulatory, infrastructure (including investment) and enforcement perspectives. By curbing nutrient runoff and addressing manufacturing effluents that drive eutrophication, to scaling plastics recycling and advancing safe, non-plastic material substitutes – SMEP demonstrates practical pathways to accelerate progress and deliver tangible reductions in coastal and marine pollution at the world’s largest event for life below water.
Policy engagement: Solution to marine pollution in Ocean Action Panel 4 (OAP-4)
The 2025 UN Ocean Action Panel 4 (OAP-4) on “Preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities” convenes UN agencies and Member State delegations, scientific experts, civil society groups and private-sector innovators to diagnose and remedy land- and sea-based pollution that deprives coastal waters of oxygen, chokes ecosystems and undermines fisheries and livelihoods. Its concept paper (A/CONF.230/2025/7) functions as both a diagnostic document and a roadmap assessing trends and challenges in land-based marine pollution and outlining scalable, source-to-sea interventions to guide the panel’s policy recommendations.
The United Nations makes clear that achieving SDG 14.1 by 2025 hinges on aligning technical innovation, financing mechanisms and governance frameworks to implement measures ranging from cleaner production to circular waste management. As the only bilateral-funded programme named in the concept paper, SMEP, as a tested model for action-oriented and pragmatic solutions, appears not only once but twice: under “industrial transformation through resource efficiency” (para 54) and “circular solutions for plastic pollution” (para 56), illustrating how manufacturing practices and material flows can be rewired to stem the tide of waste.
By spotlighting SMEP’s pilots e.g., textile and tannery wastewater treatment, novel agri-waste fibres to reduce polyester demand, development of biodegradable alternatives to conventional fishing gear to minimise ghost fishing, Mr. Green’s advanced wastewater treatment technology for plastics recycling and The FlipFlopi Project’s mitigation of plastic pollution through heritage-boat building, the UN shifts these pilots from promising experiments to essential blueprints. Governments drafting new wastewater regulations or circular-economy incentives to curb marine pollution now have tested and scalable models that are no longer anecdotes but validated policy options.
Scientific dialogue: refining concepts and building consensus
SMEP’s participation at the Scientists’ Coalition side event, “The UN Treaty to End Plastic Pollution: Robust Science for Success” at UNOC-3 shows that robust dialogue between trade policy and scientific experts is vital to ensure definitions (e.g., on natural and environmentally-friendly substitutes to plastics, including marine-based non-plastic substitutes) are evidence-based and internationally harmonised. The continued dialogue with scientists (i) enables SMEP to tighten its screening criteria, e.g., on safety and performance benchmarks, as well as it (ii) allows for targeted advocacy for climate-friendly and circular nature-based solutions and resource efficiency, for cities, industries and agriculture to optimise resources and prevent pollutants from reaching coastal waters.
From science to action
At the dialogue, SMEP advocates for material substitutes to plastics that are designed, made and packaged according to internationally recognised standards, as adapted by regional and national standards bodies to ensure claims of recyclability and composition (for instance, bio-based or biodegradable plastics) are reliable, credible and transparent, promoting consumer protection. SMEP also highlights that existing chemical-safety frameworks, such as the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, can underpin policy, trade regulations and domestic markets, ensuring that both plastics and substitutes meet the same rigorous safety criteria.
By aligning definitions with these conventions, SMEP’s ongoing scientific dialogue shows how trade-related measures (tariffs, labelling and import standards) can reinforce sustainable material flows. In a world of static lifecycle metrics, SMEP’s evolving evidence, shaped alongside scientists, offers a dynamic template: with the right safeguards, non-plastic materials and “improved plastics” can cut pollution rather than just merely shift it.
Public outreach: Bringing solutions to the people
In the Green Zone’s “The Ocean That Feeds Us” Pavilion at UNOC3, co-led by UNCTAD, the Aquatic Blue Foods Coalition and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), SMEP’s work highlights how innovation in marine-based products not only curbs pollution but also bolsters food security and sustainability.
Featured as part of the UN Ocean Forum’s 15 Recommendations to UNOC3 and a film screening about UNCTAD’s trade-related mandate for marine-pollution mitigation, SMEP showcases that evidence from grassroots engagement matters: when coastal communities are educated, and when they, along with private-sector actors and civil society, join negotiation tables and partnerships, governance strengthens and transboundary pollution is tackled more effectively.
SMEP’s presence at the Pavilion brings the film narrative to life, showing how trade and innovation converge at the source of pollution. The film showcases:
- UNCTAD SMEP’s advocacy on plastic pollution at the WTO and scaling up plastic substitutes; its call for the conclusion of a global plastics treaty, and
- the SMEP-funded MAPS Expo – all three underscoring that “…to protect the ocean, change must start on land”.
SMEP-funded projects illustrate how businesses, governments, the civil society and NGOs can collaborate to turn marine pollution challenge into opportunity for sustainable development, especially in the Global South. The Programme’s demonstration of real-world solutions. from material redesign to industry-wide resource efficiency, proves that economic growth and environmental stewardship can go hand in hand.
Crucially, SMEP at UNOC3 spotlights trade-related levers in the circular economy and demonstrates how data-driven policies and practical, science-backed evidence alongside favourable market frameworks can help scale solutions across borders. Channelling its visibility and engagement to share knowledge, mobilise communities and influence multi-stakeholder dialogues on pollution’s co-benefits for climate action, marine biodiversity conservation, food security and inclusive coastal livelihoods, SMEP ensures one thing: its work delivers verifiable reductions in coastal and marine pollution beyond 2025.
You can read more about SMEP’s participation at UNOC3 here and here.
You can see the full gallery of videos from the UN Oceans Forum MAPS Expo in March here.
Maria Durleva
Programme Management Officer, SMEP-UNCTAD
