Türkiye’s COP31 Presidency is seeking to turn fragmented marine litter efforts into scalable action by linking knowledge, monitoring, finance and technical support.
Türkiye’s COP31 Presidency has launched a Marine Litter Action Platform to help scale up measures to tackle ocean and sea pollution, as government officials, international organisations, academics, civil society representatives and private-sector participants gathered in Trabzon ahead of the UN climate conference in Antalya.
The platform aims to connect existing marine litter projects with knowledge, technical assistance and financing, addressing what the presidency said were fragmented approaches to successful projects, expertise and funding opportunities.
The initiative forms part of the COP31 President’s Action Agenda priority on “Oceans and Seas” and is built around three pillars.
The first is a knowledge-sharing network through which successful projects and technical approaches can be exchanged. The second is a digital monitoring dashboard providing an inventory and map-based overview of marine litter initiatives across countries and regions. The third is a mechanism to connect projects with financial and technical support, strengthening links between project developers and potential partners.
The platform also links the COP31 Presidency’s “Oceans and Seas” and “Zero Waste Blue” priorities, drawing on Türkiye’s Zero Waste initiative led by Emine Erdoğan, First Lady of the Republic of Türkiye. The presidency said the initiative reflects the links between waste, oceans and seas and climate.
The summit also produced the Trabzon Call to Consensus, Dialogue and Action, which called for tangible and implementable outcomes on oceans and seas at COP31 and greater mobilisation of resources from all sources to accelerate action.
Oceans and seas are a key priority for the COP31 Presidency and play an important role as carbon sinks. Climate change is threatening ocean and coastal ecosystems as well as the livelihoods of communities that depend on them. Damage to those ecosystems can in turn reduce their capacity to absorb carbon, creating a feedback loop that can worsen climate change and its impacts.
Türkiye is working with Australia, Pacific Island countries and the wider oceans and seas community to bring regional and international perspectives and solutions into the COP31 agenda. The Trabzon summit was the latest step in that effort and also highlighted the specific climate impacts affecting the Black Sea.
A high-level meeting of governments and international organisations at the summit focused on oceans, climate and the blue economy, with discussions centred on practical measures to scale up blue finance and strengthen resilience. Murat Kurum, endorsing points raised at the meeting concerning the Blue NDC, said work would be carried out on the matter.
The work undertaken in Trabzon will continue through the UN General Assembly, New York Climate Week and the Pre-COP in Fiji, including a special leaders’ component in Tuvalu, before culminating at COP31 in Antalya in November.
Ahead of the summit, a youth event was held on September 9, bringing together climate volunteers and climate ambassadors from different countries. Participants took part in field visits and joint activities in Trabzon, exchanging experiences and perspectives on climate action, protection of oceans and seas and environmental sustainability. COP31 messages from young leaders were also shared during the event.
Opening the two-day COP31 Ocean and Seas Summit, COP31 President-Designate Murat Kurum, who is also Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, called for stronger international cooperation, improved access to science and data, sustainable blue economy practices and wider access to blue finance.
“At the end of these two days, we want to leave with concrete, practical and shared outcomes. Outcomes that can be implemented and carried forward on the road to COP31,” Kurum said in Trabzon.
“Protecting the oceans is a responsibility we all share. We call on every party to turn that responsibility into bold, concrete action: restoring ecosystems and building resilience,” he said.
