Martin Koehring - Global Sustainability and Ocean Expert

I’m in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada this week to moderate six sessions at Economist Impact's World Ocean Tech and Innovation Summit. We will also be announcing the winners of the World Ocean Initiative’s Ocean Changemakers Challenge.

World Maritime Day is celebrated in September to focus attention on the importance of shipping and other maritime activities. It provides an opportunity to reflect on how the shipping industry can play a critical role in leveraging ‘greener’ innovations towards solving decarbonisation challenges.

I moderated the session “How Can We Develop Blue Economy Opportunities?” at the Virtual Island Summit 2022, organised by Island Innovation. Following an opening keynote by Dr Keith Mitchell, former prime minister of Grenada, I was joined by four excellent panellists.

Next week I will speak at the "Valuing Natural Capital Conference" in Geneva, hosted by Geneva Macro Labs in collaboration with ILO, UNITAR, UNCDF, Harvard University, FootPrint Coalition and ServiceNow. My presentation will focus on the role of marine natural capital in mitigating climate change, drawing on insights from my work leading Economist Impact's World Ocean Initiative.

It was encouraging to see the source-to-sea approach making waves at this year’s World Water Week, organised by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). However, ocean solutions could still be featured more prominently. Here are my five takeaways.

I have been attending World Water Week in Stockholm this week. Today is the final day, and I will be speaking during the closing panel on “What’s Next?”. I will talk about the latest trends when it comes to innovation and societal transformations, drawing on research from Economist Impact and the World Ocean Initiative.

I‘m attending World Water Week in Stockholm this week. Today I will be speaking as part of the talk show “From words into action: Financing from source to sea”. I will be joined by Ruth Mathews, senior manager at SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute) and moderator Eric Paglia of KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Only around 1.2% of the high seas are currently protected. Unfortunately, diplomats meeting at the UN in New York have failed (at their fifth attempt) to agree on a high seas treaty. In this interview for TRT World I explain why having a global ocean treaty is so significant.

International Youth Day is observed each year on August 12th. This month Economist Impact's World Ocean Initiative celebrates past winners of our Ocean Changemakers Challenge. These young talents are all working on solutions for a sustainable blue economy.

A key part of California’s single-use plastics law, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) eventually could lead to cost savings through better product design and materials recovery. I was interviewed by PlasticsToday about the opportunities and challenges of introducing EPR schemes, with references to Economist Impact's recent work on the circular economy, plastics management and advanced recycling technologies.

I was interviewed by Waste360 about the prospects of advanced recycling technologies. In the interview I discuss how Economist Impact's "Rethinking Plastics in a Circular Economy" study, supported by Dow, comprehensively assesses each plastic recycling technology for attributes that will be important considerations to policymakers, investors and the plastics industry.

Plastic Free July is an opportunity to reflect on the pervasiveness of plastic in our daily lives and highlight opportunities to build a circular economy. Plastic production increased more than 200-fold between 1950 and 2019, growing from 2 million tonnes to 460 million tonnes per year, yet only 14–18% of plastic is recycled globally.

Economist Impact's Sustainability Project spoke with me about the implications of the UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution and other recent signs of progress on the circular economy for plastics.

The Economist Educational Foundation is an independent charity that empowers young people to have high-quality discussions about current affairs. To help them achieve this, I am taking part in a fundraising challenge.

Tomorrow I will be moderating two sessions at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's flagship annual event on the circular economy, with this year's event focusing on "Regenerative by Design".

The World Ocean Initiative team was on the ground last month at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon and the UN World Oceans Day events in New York. Read more for an overview of recent coverage from the World Ocean Initiative.

Today I moderated a panel discussion on “Security of subsea data cables and marine protected areas", organised by the Atlantic Centre, SafeSeas, the University of Copenhagen and the Institute for Security Studies (Pretoria). This was an official side event of the UN Ocean Conference.

I was interviewed for BBC World's World Business Report on the latest developments at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon.

I’m at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon this week. Today I moderated a session on “Unlocking Corporate Blue Finance” in the SDG Media Zone.

Around 75% of clothing end up in landfills and less than 1% are being recycled into new clothing. How can clothes be designed to last longer, be reused, and be recycled into new clothes at their end of life? Find out in the latest episode of Economist Impact’s “Inside the Circle” podcast, hosted by me.