NAMC Annual Meeting 2022 - Nov. 8th. - 9th.
The scientists at NAMC have been visiting Bergen for the NAMC annual seminar, the General assembly and workshop for the five Pillar groups.
Very encouraging to see many exciting and innovative projects underway at the North Atlantic Microplastic Centre (NAMC). In the years to come, this centre’s leading researchers aim to provide lots of new, useful knowledge to industries, governments and organisations, in a joint battle against plastic pollution.
This massive problem already affects the environment, it threatens our oceans and wildlife – and our health.
According to the recent OECD Global Plastic Outlook report, the global community is on the course to triple the use of plastics by 2060, and so may also the amount of plastic waste. This is the time to develop solutions and effective actions to handle plastic pollution and the leakage of microplastics into the environment.
NAMC has 16 partners and is coordinated by NORCE and led by senior researcher Gunhild Bødtker, and the scientific coordinator Alessio Gomiero.
Frode Fjeldstad from Agenda Vestlandet, the biggest NAMC supporter, opened the annual meeting. Agenda Vestlandet is a foundation for sustainable development created by Sparebanken Vest
– NAMC will bring new knowledge to the table, and I look forward to learning more about the results.
This meeting, and the everyday efforts in NAMC for that matter, are not just solely about the research itself.
– It is about engaging different industry sectors, politicians, public environmental authorities, governments, and environmental organizations so that we all work together to solve the big plastic challenge, says Chairman of the Board, Hans Kleivdal and Deputy Executive Vice President in NORCE.
We see that UN SDG#17 Partnership for the Goals really works in the NAMC initiative, says Kleivdal. The value of our coordinated research collaboration across borders to develop a collective scientific input UNEP meeting in Nairobi in February contributed to the unanimous UN decision to start the negotiations for a global and legally binding plastic agreement.
– The first session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee starts in 2 weeks in Uruguay. I am glad we will be at the table – putting forward updated NAMC knowledge input that is important to make a science-based framework and solid foundation for the plastic agreement negotiations taking place over the next two years.
In the first session of the seminar the NAMC pillar leaders presented the status of research conducted in 2022 and plans for 2023. The second session of the seminar was dedicated to invited speakers from NAMC partners and industry.
This year's invited speakers:
