Conventions and international environmental cooperation

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Manager

Research Scientist

UN Member States met in Ottawa 23-29 April to continue the negotiations for a global treaty to end plastic pollution. Researchers from NIVA are part of a network of 350 scientists informing the negotiations.

The ever-increasing problem of plastic pollution has prompted widespread efforts to combat it through innovative clean-up technologies. These advancements, however, often seen as the silver bullet to solve our plastic crisis, sometimes do more harm than good.

The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) has recently been awarded funding to lead a new EU project that will investigate the interaction between all European regulations that affect governance of Europe’s seas and coasts.

ASEANO 2 is a regional capacity building project led by NIVA and the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies Indonesia (CSEAS), in collaboration with the ASEAN Secretariat. The project is under the leadership of the ASEAN sectoral body ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME). ASEANO2 aims to build and enhance capacity and knowledge to measure, evaluate and address plastic pollution from key terrestrial sources in the ASEAN region through improved understanding of sources, emissions, transport, and fate.

China is an increasingly central actor in global environmental governance. CHAMBITION aims to elucidate China’s role in international environmental cooperation through examining the positions the country assumes in global environmental governance and the domestic and international drivers accounting for these positions.

NIVA is leading this comprehensive EU project that will examine the interaction between all European regulations that affect the marine and coastal environment.

ENCORE is led by Karel Viaene at ARCHE Consulting. The objective of ENCORE is to develop a probabilistic modelling framework for estimation of environmental risk of chemical mixtures in watersheds across Europe.

The European Topic Centre Biodiversity and Ecosystems (ETC BE) is a Consortium of 24 European organisations, led by NIVA and working in partnership with the European Environment Agency (EEA) under a Framework Partnership Agreement for the period 2023-2026. The consortium has expertise in the topic area of terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity and ecosystems. Biodiversity and ecosystems is one of five strategic work areas in the EEA-Eionet Strategy 2021-2030.

The goal of the EUROqCHARM project (EUROpean quality Controlled Harmonization Assuring Reproducible Monitoring and assessment of plastic pollution) is to establish harmonized methods for monitoring and assessing macro-, micro-, and nanoplastics in the environment, as well as outlines for standards and recommendations for policy and legislation.

The programme collects monitoring data from approximately 20 countries in Europe and North America to monitor and investigate the extent to which air pollution affects lakes and rivers, particularly regarding acidification, heavy metals and pollutants.

INECO (Indo-Norwegian Collaboration Project on Ecosystem Services and Accounting) is part of the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Management and Research Initiative. This is a collaborative project between NIVA and the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences) in India. The aim is to develop capacity and expertise for ecosystem services and accounting to support the blue economy and linked ocean accounting in India.

INOPOL (India-Norway cooperation project on capacity building for reducing plastic and chemical pollution in India) is a collaborative project between NIVA, which leads the project, with MGC as India country lead and several Indian institutions (SRM, CIPET, Toxics Link). The project is part of the Norway-India Marine Pollution Initiative established between Indian and Norwegian authorities in 2019. The project is also part of NORAD’s programme to combat microplastics and marine pollution.

MULTISOURCE is an EU-funded project that will facilitate the systematic, city-wide planning of nature-based solutions for urban water treatment, storage, and reuse. Through seven technical pilots across Europe and USA, a wide range of urban waters will be treated throughout the project, while decision support tools will be co-designed together with local, national, and international stakeholders. NIVA and the City of Oslo together with 18 other partners are working on the treatment and reuse of urban stormwater using nature-based treatment solutions. The Norwegian pilot treats road runoff from Tåsenveien.

Development of new low-cost ocean sensors for ocean observing and citizen science

PAPILLONS' overall aim is to shed light on the sustainability of plastic use in European agriculture in terms of emissions of micro- and nanoplastics, leakage of their chemical additives, and the impact of this on the soil. Through novel applications of the latest in analytical chemistry, materials science, computer modelling and nanofabrication technologies, we elucidate the sources, behavior and impacts of particles at micro- and nanoscale.

The overall goal of the project is to help ensure that the new international treaty to combat plastic pollution is effective and that it takes into account the needs and circumstances of developing countries and economies in transition. Among other things, the project supports an independent coalition of scientists working to ensure that the agreement is based on independent, up-to-date research. 

Practical knowledge about nature-based solutions in the the Nordic countries from eight different pilot projects.

 

SINOPLAST II shall contribute to reduced plastic waste and marine litter originating from China. The project partners shall achieve this through establishing a whole life-cycle framework for plastics for policy makers, improving the capacity for integrated land-ocean management of plastics, and through improving the knowledge of plastics from a global perspective. The project will thus support the implementation of the new global plastics treaty.

NIVA's Section for International Environment and Development works with solutions to complex environmental problems locally, nationally, and globally. We work interdisciplinary, qualitatively, and quantitatively and we combine social science and natural science methods to create holistic analyses and solution proposals. 

The Water and Society section engages in research on the interactions between people and nature, and how different values and knowledge can be better integrated in environmental policy, regulation and management. Understanding these interactions is essential for relevant, inclusive and holistic water and environmental governance.