SOS-ZEROPOL2030: D2.2 The EU Governance Landscape for Zero Marine Pollution : Overview of the existing EU governance arrangements and the best practices and constraints of governance efforts to achieve zero marine pollution

The European Union’s (EU) Zero Pollution Action Plan, adopted in May 2021, aims to drastically reduce pollution in air, water and soil. It in particular “sets out an integrated vision for 2050: a world where pollution is reduced to levels that are no longer harmful to human health and natural ecosystems, as well as the steps to get there”. This report focuses on land-based sources of marine pollution. It explores policy developments across the entire value chain of contaminants (e.g., production, usage, end-of-life, and end-of-pipe) to achieve EU’s zero pollution objective. The aim of this report is to: Identify the best practices and constraints of current EU governance efforts to achieve zero pollution for four selected priority pollutant groups, namely underwater noise, chemicals, nutrients and microplastics. To achieve the aim, the scope of the report is the in-depth study of the upstream governance arrangements that relate to two case contaminants of Tyre Wear Particles (TWPs) and Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). The Zero Pollution Action Plan objective for microplastics, and thus also TWPs, is to reduce the release of microplastics into the environment by 30%. For PFAS, the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability outlines the EU’s zero pollution objective, which is to phase out their use in the EU, unless deemed essential. The report focuses on land-based sources of emissions to the aquatic and marine environment, taking into account the production and use of PFAS and tyres.