Youna Lyons, Lim Cheng Ling, and Yulu Liu, PhD, from the Ocean Law and Policy Programme of the Centre for International Law, were invited as speakers to the 2nd ERIA’s Experts Working Group (EWG) on Marine Plastic Debris Meeting initiated by the Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris (RKC-MPD).

The online meeting held on Zoom, invited experts from a different disciplines involved in plastic pollution to assist with the establishment of baselines and offers a multidisciplinary assessment of marine plastics in the ASEAN Member States. This included discussions on data availability and gaps across plastic value chain in the ASEAN region in the context approaches to a circular economy and material flow analysis, plastic waste pollution (especially of single-use plastics) in the wake of COVID-19, and recommendations and possible partnerships and collaborations with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other key actors to find integrated solutions to plastic pollution. Members of the Environment Division of the ASEAN Secretariat participated, included its head, Dr Vong Sok.

This meeting was based on the premise that having access to accurate plastic data and the capacity to translate it into actionable recommendations should be the basis of any national strategic priority setting and policymaking. However, in ASEAN countries, there are big gaps in data availability on plastic at many stages of its life-cycle, and expertise surrounding it is insufficiently coordinated in order to make integrated policy recommendations at both national and regional levels. Analyzing currently available data to draw an overall picture of the issue would be the first step to address these gaps.

Youna, Cheng Ling and Yulu provided a presentation on “Capacity assessment in Monitoring of Marine Plastics and Microplastics, and Preventative Policy Effectiveness Analysis in ASEAN+3”. The team provided an assessment based on experience gained and findings from research publications from the region.  They discussed data extraction from research publications, data consistency, and regional monitoring as well as policy interventions to combat pollution from marine plastics and ways to assess their effectiveness.

CIL presentation can be downloaded here.