Source-to-sea governance approaches for the prevention and reduction of marine pollution

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.1 aims to prevent and significantly reduce all forms of marine pollution by 2025, particularly plastic and nutrient pollution from land-based activities. The achievement of SDG 14.1 is dependent on a patchwork of governing institutions, policies, and approaches across different governance levels and actors. In order to assess governance approaches being implemented to achieve SDG 14.1, this chapter develops and applies a source-to-sea governance typology. This typology, based on a lifecycle approach, makes a distinction between governance approaches implemented across various lifecycle sources; that is, production, use, and end-of-life of products, and emissions of pollutants to the sea (end-of-pipe). The chapter shows that governance fragmentation results in skewed governance approaches that rarely directly address and reduce the production of petrochemical and harmful substances or products. Without an overall reduction in the production of plastic, nutrients, or other harmful substances, SDG 14.1 will not be achieved.