The report provides a framework for ensuring that marine spatial planning (MSP) does not worsen poverty and gender inequality in developing countries, and that potentially marginalised groups are appropriately considered and engaged in the MSP process.

This report provides guidelines for the steps of a more inclusive MSP process.

The findings indicate that a scorecard can be used to guide the social sustainability of the MSP process. The criteria in the scorecard include:

To protect the oceans' natural capital and promote sustainable economic growth, the world needs to move beyond a business-as-usual relationship with its marine resources. For increasing numbers of countries, the solution is the "Blue Economy" approach. It allocates ocean space across traditional sectors such as fisheries and new ones such as offshore wind farms, intending to protect resources and benefit current and future generations.

Global plastics production has reached 380 million metric tons in 2015, with around 40% used for packaging. Plastic packaging is diverse and made of multiple polymers and numerous additives, along with other components, such as adhesives or coatings.

Shipping is increasing today along with the sector's emissions of greenhouse gases. The awareness of the emissions has increased the pressure for regulations of the shipping industry. Regulating the sector is far from simple due to the complexity of the market and the evasive characteristics of the industry. We know from studies of road pricing that attitudes among stakeholders are important for a successive policy implementation. The objective of this paper is to capture the Swedish ports’ attitudes towards regulations of the shipping sector's emissions of CO2 .

In 2008 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) decided on more stringent requirements from 2015 for airborne emissions of sulphur dioxide from sea transports in the sulphur emission control areas (SECA). The European SECA comprises the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel. The paper contains an overview of the European studies that have been carried out to investigate the impacts of IMO's more stringent sulphur requirements. All studies were carried out after IMO's decision in 2008 (which means that the decision was taken based on other reasons).

The combined effects of climate change, marine tourism and other stressors threaten the ecological and economic sustainability of coral reefs. This study investigates dive industry stakeholder awareness of the threats to coral reefs through structured interviews with Dive Masters, company managers and marine management agencies in Vietnam, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia. Stakeholders from all locations have observed degradation of local reefs. Destructive fishing was identified as the principal threat in all regions except Australia.