Debate presented in the Alting on 8 June 2022 by Lone Mikkelsen and Niklas Jørgensen, the Green Transition Denmark, Jens Anton Klingstrøm Klinken, the Danish Nature Conservation Society, Arendse Gulløv, Greenpeace, Naja Andersen, Oceana and Anne Aittomaki, Plastic Change

On the occasion of United Nations World Oceans Day on 8 June, we, the five signatory environmental organisations, wish to express our unreserved concern for the state of the marine environment.

Denmark is surrounded by sea. An ocean that many of us love and have a strong attachment to. But beneath the surface, problems are growing.

The marine environment is under pressure from many sides. As a consequence, we experience a decline in fish stocks, bottom-dwelling species and eelgrass, while strong and frequent oxygen depletion occurs. Inshore fishermen across the country are seeing declines in catches, and divers are reporting lifeless mudflats where there used to be undulating eelgrass forests.

We have forgotten nature under the surface of the sea

Today, when we otherwise focus more and more on nature and biodiversity on land, it is as if we have forgotten what happens under the surface of the sea.

The sea is clearly polluted, which has become more and more recognized in recent years. While parts of the plastic pollution are clearly visible when, for example, we find waste on our coasts, we cannot see with the naked eye the heavy pollution with nutrients and environmentally hazardous substances, or the plastic and microplastics that accumulate on the seabed.

It is essential that the invisible is also made visible. Only in this way can we collectively take ownership.

We need the sea in Denmark. And we need political action and legislation that tackles the sources of pollution. We therefore want to highlight three important areas of action where Danish politicians should take action now to prevent or reduce pollution of the oceans:

• Reduce the discharge of nutrients into the Danish marine environment by reducing the proportion of livestock and minimizing the consumption of artificial fertilizers
• Stop plastic pollution at source by reducing the use of single-use packaging and introduce a national deposit scheme for takeaways
• Set requirements for cleaning for environmentally hazardous substances in treatment plants via technological solutions

Reduce the discharge of nutrients

Nutrient discharge to the sea comes mainly from agriculture and causes algal growth, oxygen depletion, muddy seabeds and destroyed ecosystems from which marine life disappears.

Around 61 percent of our land in Denmark is cultivated, and we have an enormous number of livestock and correspondingly large quantities of nutrient-rich livestock and artificial manure. When there is too much fertilizer on the fields, it is carried by rainwater and the air into streams and on to lakes, fjords and inland waters.

This has led to the amount of nutrients being far too large for decades, and to the fact that it has been stored in large pools on the seabed.

The ecosystems are destroyed, and even if we reduce the nutrient discharge, it will take decades for the ecosystems to be restored - precisely because of the accumulation of nutrients on the seabed in recent decades. Fortunately, we can get ecosystems back – and the more we do now, the faster they will come back.

By reducing the proportion of livestock and avoiding synthetic fertilizers, we will achieve a reduction in the discharge of nutrients.

A more sustainable number of livestock will reduce the discharge of nutrients from livestock manure into the sea. We have to grow feed for our livestock ourselves, so we avoid importing nutrients through animal feed.

At the same time, livestock manure must be processed in biogas plants and distributed better in the country, for example by separation, so that nutrient discharge to the sea is minimized and the re-establishment of robust ecosystems is possible. This also enables a minimal consumption of artificial fertilizers.

Stop plastic pollution at the source

80 percent of all plastic in the ocean comes from land. The majority is from packaging for food and beverages.

Disposable packaging and packaging for take-away food and drink are among the most common types of plastic found in Danish nature. In Denmark, the consumption of plastic packaging has increased by 30 percent in just five years, and every year 15 million tons of plastic end up in the world's oceans. This corresponds to two full garbage trucks per minute.

We cannot solve the challenges with clean-up activities and increased recycling of plastic alone. A farewell to single-use products and a fundamental shift to multi-use is needed. The introduction of a national deposit system, where coffee cups, lunch boxes and pizza trays are returned, washed and used again, will help to reduce the amount of plastic waste that ends up in the marine environment.

Requirements for the cleaning of environmentally hazardous substances

The chemical discharge is diffuse, and we do not know enough about its extent, of which the PFOS scandal, among other things, is a blindingly clear example.

However, we know that a lot is emitted from treatment plants, and we need technological solutions that can remedy this problem. Treatment plants must ensure cleaner discharges, where environmentally hazardous substances have also been removed before they are discharged into the marine environment - with a special focus on substances that are difficult to degrade.

There is a lack of requirements for the right technological solutions, and there is a lack of incentives to promote further development in the area. There is still no 'one size fits all' solution.

The source of the wastewater – for example hospital, city or industry – must therefore determine the technological solution. We are currently in a situation where Danish environmental technology companies already have a number of effective cleaning solutions, which are also often characterized by being more energy efficient than competing technologies. We should look at them and spread them throughout the country.

Alongside this effort, it is of crucial importance that political incentives are created for the development of alternatives to environmentally hazardous substances, so that the most harmful ones can be phased out as soon as possible.

The great pressure the sea is under is in many cases caused by problems on land. And when it is created on land, it must be solved on land. At the source.

We are a rich country with a large consumption. We therefore have a responsibility in relation to both plastic, nutrient and chemical pollution. Global as well as local.

Happy World Oceans Day.