Introduction and definition of the marine macro-plastic litter baseline
JRC (unit D2) is supporting DG ENV in the impact assessment and the forthcoming revision of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). More specifically, in the framework of the Blue2.3 Administrative Arrangement (AA) (N° 090202/2023/894429/AA/ENV.C.2), JRC is committed to provide numerical simulations to assess the impact of extant, planned and new policy measures on the distance from Good Environmental Status (GES) of some of the descriptors defined in the MSFD in the next few decades (up to 2050). However, to assess the potential impacts of alternative measures, it is necessary first to simulate scenarios accounting for the effects of current EU policies. These scenarios, which consider measures already in place (or planned) and the background impacts of climate change, are referred to as baseline. The first critical step to simulate baseline scenarios is to “translate” measures impacting MSFD descriptors into numerical model inputs. This report (which is part of the deliverable 3.1 of the Blue2.3 AA) describes the definition of the baseline model scenario relative to the MSFD descriptor D10 (marine litter). Starting from the analysis of the measures currently regulating litter quantity and distribution, we have estimated the expected basin-specific litter reduction from land-based and maritime sources. These estimates will be used as inputs to simulate plastic litter dispersion in the EU basins in 2050.
MACIAS Diego;
GARCIA GORRIZ Elisa;
POLIMENE Luca;
GONZALEZ FERNANDEZ Daniel;
2026-04-01
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC145473
978-92-68-38845-7 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40678,
OP KJ-01-26-146-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC145473,
10.2760/1851365 (online),
Additional supporting files
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