Back to Blue by Economist Impact

The World Ocean Summit is an annual global event run by The Economist Group, which brings together the wide ocean community, from business and finance to governments, national and international policy-makers, civil society and academia. This year, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of this event in Lisbon, Portugal.In this episode, Martin Koehring, head of the World Ocean Initiative at Economist Impact, shares his firsthand experience at the summit and his key takeaways, with Naka Kondo, lead editor of Back to Blue at Economist Impact.Make a submission at backtoblueinitiative.com/take-action-on-ocean-pollution to close the marine pollution data gap.Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

The world will continue to drown in plastic waste unless a bold and comprehensive set of policy changes is applied – this is according to Peak plastics: bending the consumption curve – a new report by Back to Blue, an initiative of Economist Impact and the Nippon Foundation. We delve into how we can decisively tackle plastic waste that is polluting our ocean and land environments with guest, Winnie Lau, project director of the Preventing Ocean Plastics project at The Pew Charitable Trusts. What will it take to decisively tackle the plastic waste crisis? Can we bend the consumption curve?Download the Peak Plastics report at: https://backtoblueinitiative.com/plastics-consumption/Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14, Target 14.3, calls for minimising and addressing the impacts of ocean acidification through co-operation at all levels. There is an urgent need for scientific communities to come together with the media, education systems, policymakers and civil society to help bring more attention to the issue and to come up with technological solutions and robust legislation.Listen to the panel discussion on ocean acidification by Steve Widdicombe, director of science, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Peter Thomson, United Nation Secretary-general's special envoy for the ocean, Malaika Vaz, explorer, National Geographic, and Founder, Untamed Planet and moderated by Charles Goddard, editorial director, Economist Impact.Learn more about ocean acidification at: https://backtoblueinitiative.com/ocean-acidification/Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

In the second part of this podcast on deep sea mining, released during the World Ocean Summit Asia-Pacific, we dive deeper into the pollution risks of deep sea mining with Craig Smith, deep sea ecologist and professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. How has deep sea mining emerged as a sector and where are things standing today with this industry?In part 1 of this 2-part episode, we discussed the environmental impact of deep sea mining on our oceans and marine life, and it being an issue on the COP agenda, listen to the previous episode on the Back to Blue website: https://backtoblueinitiative.com/back-to-blue-podcasts/ Register to attend the World Ocean Summit Asia-Pacific at: https://events.economist.com/world-ocean-summit-asia-pacific/ Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

At the COP27 summit, Emmanuel Macron became the first head of state to call for a ban on deep sea mining. In part 1 of this 2-part episode on deep sea mining, the Back to Blue team talks to Phil McCabe, an ocean campaigner, a member of the deep sea conservation coalition about the past, present and future of deep sea mining projects. What has been driving deep-sea mining as a trend? And what are the environmental risks to our ocean? Learn more about marine chemical pollution at: https://backtoblueinitiative.com/marine-chemical-pollution-the-invisible-wave/ Register to attend the World Ocean Summit Asia-Pacific at: https://events.economist.com/world-ocean-summit-asia-pacific/ Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

The Back to Blue team was at the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal and spoke to President Surangel Whipps Jr. of Palau about the ocean pollution issues they face, and Professor Bethanie Carney Almroth, Associate Professor of EcoToxicology, University of Gothenberg about her research into marine pollution and why she and her colleagues believe the pollution planetary boundary has been breached in the ocean.Learn more about marine chemical pollution at: https://backtoblueinitiative.com/marine-chemical-pollution-the-invisible-wave/Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

What is green and sustainable chemistry and can it be the solution to marine chemical pollution? What role can the private sector play? How can the circular economy accelerate the transition to safer and less hazardous chemicals?Charles Goddard, editorial director at Economist Impact discusses the responses to chemical pollution with Joel Tickner, professor of public health at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Professor Tickner is also the founder and executive director at the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council. Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content. Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

Charles Goddard, editorial director at Economist Impact speaks to Pascal Lamy, president of the Paris Peace Forum, and Naoko Ishii, director at the Centre for the Global Commons at University of Tokyo, about marine chemical pollution in a broader context. Is chemical pollution a key anthropogenic challenge on a par with climate change and biodiversity loss? Why do we need to include chemical pollution as a broad set of global environmental challenges? Are we already at a tipping point? Relevant content: More Back to Blue podcastsReport | The Invisible Wave: Getting to zero chemical pollution in the oceanData story | Chemicals and our oceans: A gathering crisisVideo | The Invisible WaveBack to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

In the second podcast of this series, we look at the extraordinary number of chemicals that have been created, produced and in use, what inventories exist on these chemicals, how much we know about their toxicity and potential for harm, and how well they are regulated. We’ll also explore the legislative, regulatory and other interventions needed to better manage, reduce and prevent chemical pollution. This episode is hosted by Charles Goddard, editorial director at The Economist Group, he is joined by Dr Zhanyun Wang, scientist at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, and a leading thinker on this issue. To learn more, watch Dead zones: how chemical pollution is suffocating the sea, or listen to other Back to Blue podcasts. Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.

Charles Goddard, editorial director at The Economist Group speaks to two experts about the scope and scale of the problem of chemical pollution in the ocean, and asks how worried we should be about the impact of chemical pollution on ocean life and ecosystems, and human health. The guest speakers are: - Elsie Sunderland, the Gordon McKay professor of environmental chemistry, and professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University - Alex Rogers, director of science at REV Ocean, a privately funded research and expedition vessel, and visiting professor at Oxford UniversityRelevant content: - World Ocean Summit Asia-Pacific on-demand - Other Back to Blue podcastsThis is the first of a series of podcasts on chemical pollution under the Back to Blue initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation.