Marine Environment

Marine Environment Sub Group

The marine environment sub group is one of four sub-groups that come under the umbrella of the BIC Environment work sector, along with, marine litter, climate adaptation and Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS).  Each sub group has its own membership drawn from the eight BIC Member Administrations who then feed into the main BIC Environment work sector.

The 30th British-Irish Council Summit, held in Guernsey on the 22 June 2018, highlighted a number of marine environment issues. Ministers discussed a series of topics from a paper prepared by the Council’s Environment work sector, namely marine litter, marine biodiversity and Marine Protected Areas, and ocean acidification. The BIC environment work sector was directed to prioritise areas for collaboration with an initial focus on marine litter which needed urgent, concerted and collaborative action. Early prioritisation of marine litter led to the establishment of a separate marine litter subgroup. The marine environment subgroup was set up to work on the remaining areas of the marine environment paper.

Lead Administration

The marine environment sub group is led by the UK Government.

Current Focus

The role of the marine environment sub group is to identify areas for collaboration between the administrations under the ‘biodiversity, Marine Protected Areas’ and ‘ocean acidification’ themes of the marine environment paper that was presented to the BIC Heads of Administration and Environment Ministers at the British-Irish Council Summit, held in Guernsey in June 2018. The group are currently working on a paper to present to Ministers at the next BIC Environment work sector meeting of Ministers. In addition the group are holding a number of webinars before the end of 2020 covering the three topics of biodiversity, Marine Protected Areas and ocean acidification.

Further Information

This page will provide links and further information from the work of the marine environment sub group as it continues its collaboration across the BIC Member Administrations.