India - Norway Marine Pollution Initiative
Launched in 2019, the India-Norway Marine Pollution Initiative is one of the activities under the bilateral agreement between Government of India and Government of Norway to cooperate on Oceans and develop Blue Economy. A Letter of Intent was signed between the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway to jointly work on the Initiative.
The India-Norway Marine Pollution Initiative seeks to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goal 14 and specifically its target 14.1 to “prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution” by 2025. It focuses on innovative, catalytic, and strategic collaborations with the objective of reducing marine litter and other pollutants, and ensuring more sustainable management of waste, in particular plastic waste.
The initiative is complementary to the UNEA Resolution 4 (Sub-resolutions 7 and 10 on marine plastic litter & micro-plastics, and pollution by single-use plastic products, respectively) and the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA). It is aligned with the Prime Minister’s announcement of phasing out single use plastic products by 2022, Indian Government’s Action Plan for the Clean Sea’s Campaign, and other major policies and missions such as the Swachh Bharat Mission and Clean Ganga Mission.
The Initiative has five active projects being implemented by different agencies as follows:
The activities under the India Norway Marine Pollution Initiative are being guided by the Project Steering Committee comprising of relevant stakeholders. So far 4 meetings of the Project Steering Committee have been organised.
| S. No. | Ministry/Department | Membership |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Additional Secretary, MoEF&CC | Co-Chair |
| 2. | Ambassador of Norway | Co-Chair |
| 3. | Joint Secretary, NITI Aayog/EAC-PM | Member |
| 4. | Joint Secretary, HSMD, MoEFCC | Member |
| 5. | Joint Secretary, IC, MoEFCC | Member |
| 6. | Joint Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences | Member |
| 7. | Joint Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs | Member |
| 8. | Joint Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, RD and Ganga Rejuvenation | Member |
| 9. | Deputy Ambassador, Norway | Member |
| 10. | Member Secretary, CPCB | Member |
| 11. | Director, National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management | Member |
| 12. | Director/Representative of National Centre for Coastal Research | Member |
| 13. | Representative of UNEP | Member |
| 14. | Representative of The Energy and Resources Institute | Member |
| 15. | Shri Afroz Shah, UN Environment Champions of the Earth | Member |
| 16. | Representatives from relevant State Governments as required | Member |
| 17. | Scientist, HSMD (Dealing with Marine Plastic) | Member |
| 18. | Director, HSMD, MoEFCC/Convener of Marine Litter Cell of MoEFCC | Member Convener |
9th January 2020
19th February 2020
13th January 2021
3rd February 2022