Oceans make up 99% of all the habitable space for life on Earth. We depend on them for food, medicine, energy, and raw materials for our daily lives.
Increasingly, however, oceans’ marine biodiversity, their rich ecosystems, and the livelihoods of coastal communities are all under threat.
Plastic is destroying marine life and polluting the oceans at an unprecedented rate. Plastic waste does not know borders, traveling across seas, rivers, and deltas to affect all societies and economies. It is also a key driver of climate change: emissions from plastic will reach 17% of the global carbon budget within the next three decades.
Without action, we risk having more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.
Spearheaded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the Ending Plastic Pollution Innovation Challenge (EPPIC) is an ASEAN-wide competition calling for all innovators to share their bright ideas for tackling plastic pollution with the world. The first phase was implemented in Viet Nam and Thailand in 2021, the second phase was implemented in Indonesia and the Philippines in 2022, and in 2023 EPPIC is implementing in Lao PDR and Cambodia. EPPIC provides an exciting opportunity for innovators to receive seed funding and incubation training to help them maximize their chances of success.
