Programme: 

Chair: 

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat, Dr Vong Sok, Head of Environment Division, Assistant Director of Sustainable Development Director at The ASEAN Secretariat (TBC) (5 min)

Speakers: 

• High level opening, Government of Japan, Mr. SHIGEMATSU Takayuki, Deputy Director of the Ministry of the Environment Japan (5 min)
• Opening remarks, Melati Wijsen, co-founder of Bye Bye Plastic Bags Bali (5 min)
• Measure – Monitor – Manage: the Closing the Loop approach to plastic pollution, Janet Salem, Closing the Loop Project Manager, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) (15 min)
• ‘Innovative approaches to measuring and managing marine plastic pollution in cities’, eLearning course overview, Ms. Miho Hayashi, Programme Manager, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) (10 min) 
• LIVE demo by scientific experts on ‘Detecting Waste from Land and Space' (30 min total)
  • Dr Lauren Biermann, Earth Observation Scientist, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, United Kingdom
  • Dr.ir. T.H.M. (Tim) van Emmerik, Assistant Professor Hydrologic Sensing, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands 
• Case study examples from Vietnam (20 min total)
  • Management and Research of marine plastic waste in Vietnam, Dr Pham Van Hieu, ​Deputy Head of Division, Division of Marine Environmental and Ecological Research Vietnam Institute of Seas and Islands (VISI)
  • Da Nang City, IUCN, Hien Nguyen (TBC)

 BREAK  (15 minutes)

• Breakout roundtable using an interactive virtual whiteboard approach to gather feedback, identify gaps and ways forward (45 min) 

1. Plastic pollution on coastlines and oceans (Facilitators: Dr Lauren Biermann, Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Janet Salem, UN ESCAP)
2. Plastic pollution in cities and rivers (Facilitator: Dr Tim van Emmerik and Louise Schreyers, both University of Wageningen)
3. Policy to tackle plastic pollution (Facilitators: Andrew Charles and Alexander Lee-Emery both of UN ESCAP)

• Plenary/findings from the breakout roundtable (20-25 min; this allows for around 5 min feedback per group and some time for questions)
• Closing remarks by the Chair (5 min)

Breakout rooms:  

Breakout Room 1: Plastic Pollution on Coastlines and Oceans

• What are the key challenges we face measuring and managing marine plastic pollution?
• How can we scale up engagement and action on marine plastic pollution?
• What are the most exciting new innovations and projects to tackle marine plastic pollution in your oceans and coasts?

Breakout Room 2: Plastic Pollutions in Rivers and Cities

• 2.1 What are the key challenges we face measuring and managing plastic pollution?
• 2.2 How can we scale up engagement and action on plastic pollution?
• 2.3 What are the most exciting new innovations and projects to tackle plastic pollution in your cities and regions?

Breakout Room 3: Policy to Tackle Plastic Pollution

• 3.1 What are the key challenges we face creating policy to prevent plastic pollution?
• 3.2 How can we turn policy into action to reduce plastic pollution?
• 3.3 What are the most exciting policy innovations and projects to tackle plastic pollution in your countries and regions?