June 30th, 2015 - World Maritime University Seminar in Almedalen, Visby, Sweden.

During the seminar, the World Maritime University highlighted some of the major issues affecting the oceans today. The speakers from WMU pointed out a number of increasingly negative trends and suggested several actions, including the formulation of Sustainable Development Goals for the Oceans.

Prof. Olof Lindén gave an introduction to the Word Maritime University, highlighted some of the recent major issues including the problems related to ocean littering and, in particular, microplastics. He also discussed the inclusion of the UN-Ocean-Agenda into WMUs mission. Dr Josefin Madjidian’s speech was focused on ballast water management. Dr Fabio Ballini’s speech highlighted the socio-economic impact of air pollution emissions form ships and Prof Larry Hildebrand’s speech was focused on the UN World Ocean Agenda. The session was moderated by Dr. Anders Wijkman (EU Parliament member 1999-2009). The Governor of Gothenburg, Ms Anneli Hulten, reviewed the decisions by the City Council of Gothenburg to ban microplastics in any of the products purchased or used by the City. The presentations were followed by a debate among members of the Swedish Parliament representing 5 parties. The politicians we generally in agreement concerning the need to act on issues such as the spreading of plastics to the seas, the need to continue the construction of reception facilities in ports, and the need to encourage the use of more environmentally friendly fuels in shipping. It was interesting to note that there was no discussion about the S-ECA regulation at this time.