Liste der von DEU gemeldeten Voluntary Commitments: (Stand: 6.7.2017) 1) Marine Protected Area in the Wedell Sea, Antarctica (ff: BMEL) Beschreibung: The proposal for a marine protected area (MPA) in the Weddell Sea (Atlantic part of the southern Ocean) was developed by Germany and was submitted by the European Union to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). CCAMLR members have to approve this proposal unanimously. The Commission, which comprises representatives from 24 Member States and the European Union, is currently engaged in a multiannual process to develop the scientific basis for a representative network of marine protected areas in the Antarctic Ocean. The Weddell Sea is one of a total of nine planning regions in the CCAMLR convention area which covers the entire Southern Ocean. The German proposal refers to an area of around 1.8 million square kilometers. It would be the world's largest marine protected area. When preparing the Weddell Sea protection proposal, hundreds of thousands of scientific data and information were compiled and analyzed from a 4.2-million square kilometer planning area with the aim to determine the most vulnerable regions. Budget: 600,000 USD 2) Fostering the conservation and sustainable use of marine Biological Diversity through the International Climate Initiative (ff: BMUB) Beschreibung: The German Government through the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) facilitates via a range of bilateral, regional as well as global projects to the protection of coastal and marine areas in partner countries, their effective and sustainable management and long-term funding. In addition to the focus on marine protected areas, other important aspects of cooperation include the support for sustainable artisanal fisheries and certification, combating of illegal fishing, reduction of pollution and the protection of coastal population from the consequences of climate change. The projects contribute substantially to the achievement of the SDGs especially SDG 14 as well as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, specifically related to coastal and marine challenges. The Funding volume for IKI projects in the field of coastal and marine biodiversity conservation ranges around 16 Million Euro in 2015 and 43 Million Euro in 2016. For 2017 an amount of 25 Million Euro is targeted. And also the 2018 funding program will have a specific focus on the protection of oceans. Budget: 27,000,000 USD 3) Implementation of Ten-point Plan of Action for Marine Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries of German Development Cooperation (ff: BMZ)

Beschreibung: Healthy and productive marine and coastal ecosystems are crucial for food security, sustainable economic development, conservation of biological diversity and for tackling the effects of climate change in partner countries of German Development Cooperation. The Ten-point Plan of Action for Marine Conservation and Sustainable Fisheries launched by BMZ in 2016 - draws together ten key activities the Ministry aims to address in its development cooperation with partner countries in the marine realm and serves as a guideline for engaging in and promoting new and innovative projects and partnerships. Fields of action include the strengthening and expansion of marine protected areas; promotion of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture and combatting IUU fishing; reduction of land-based marine littering, strengthening the resilience of coastal zones against the impacts of climate change; promoting partnerships for instance to strengthen private sector engagement, regional ocean governance or science-policy exchange. For the period 2016-2017 BMZ plans to commit approx. 165 million Euros (approx. 180 million USD) to the implementation of the plan of action through development cooperation. Further resources mobilized towards the implementation of this commitment from 2018-2020 will be defined/reported on an annual basis. By doing so BMZ is also helping to implement key international policy goals and instruments such as the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Convention on Biological Diversity, the goals of the Framework Convention on Climate Change such as adaptation to climate change, and the Action Plan to Combat Marine Litter agreed under the German G7 Presidency Budget: 180,000,000 USD 4) Blue Action Fund (ff: BMZ) Beschreibung: The Blue Action Fund makes funding available for the activities of national and international non-governmental organizations in their efforts to help conserve marine and coastal ecosystems with the following objectives: - The safeguarding of marine biodiversity: by creating new protected areas and by improving the management of existing ones. - The sustainable use of marine biodiversity: in fishery, aquaculture and in tourism. BMZ in cooperation with KfW Development Bank founded the Blue Action Fund as a response to the funding gap for the conservation of marine biodiversity, in particular with a view to networks of marine protected areas and transboundary conservation measures. The initial endowment provided is worth 24 million Euro (approx. 26 million USD). The Fund will work in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Pacific region. The Blue Action Fund will issue public tenders to which interested eligible organizations may submit their proposals. Budget: 26,000,000 USD 5) Reducing air pollution from vessels serving the German Federal Administration (ff: BMVI)

Beschreibung: Germany supports the objective of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to prevent pollution from ships including the ongoing efforts to minimize airborne emission from ships. The use of high-quality fuel is one possible way to further minimize air pollution from ships. As a pilot project the replacement building of the survey, wreck-search and research vessel ATAIR that is operated by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) is equipped with LNG-propulsion. The new ATAIR will be able to operate 10 days using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) only; which is the usual duration of a survey cruise. Burning LNG causes less noxious emissions compared to marine gas oil or even heavy fuel oil. After the ATAIR it is planned to equip two more German survey vessels with LNG propulsion. The intention of the German Federal Government is to lead by example in reducing air pollution from ships. Budget: USD 8.4 Mio additional costs for LNG propulsion 6) Installation of a German air monitoring network to support MARPOL Annex-VI compliance monitoring (ff: BMVI) Beschreibung: According to the MARPOL Annex VI regulations by the International maritime Organisation (IMO) and to the EU Sulphur directive (1999/33/EC and 2012/33/EC) sea going vessels are forced to burn only fuel with a reduced sulphur content or to use exhaust gas treatment systems (Scrubber) achieving the same amount of emission reduction. Since January 01, 2015 inside designated Emission Control Areas (ECA) like the whole North Sea and Baltic Sea the allowed fuel sulphur content (FSC) is 0.1% m/m. To match this regulation, inside the ECA vessels must use a much more expensive low sulphur fuel or must be operated with a Scrubber. Inside the ECAs vessels are check for MARPOL compliance by costly on board iner of ships can be checked. The question rises how to increase the number of checked vessels without increasing the number of the personnel intensive on board inspections. Within the BSH funded MeSMarT project (measurement of shipping emissions in the marine troposphere, www.mesmart.de) the University of Bremen enhanced a method to estimate the FSC of passing vessels by measuring the chemical composition of the exhaust gas from remote. Therefore modified standard in situ air quality monitors are used. By sending the analysis results in near real time to the responsible authorities, this information can be used to select conspicuously measured vessels for the on board inspections (targeting). Since summer 2016 the above described remote measurement method is in test operation at a pilot station about 10 km downriver of Hamburg harbour. Due to very positive experience the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) decided to establish a German air monitoring network to support MARPOL Annex-VI compliance monitoring. This monitoring network will consist of up to six fixed measurement sites close to the main shipping lanes of sea-going vessels (e.g. Elbe, Bremerhaven, Kiel, Warnemnde,), as well as one mobile station on board a research vessel. The monitoring network will be set up and operated by the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH). It is planned to report conspicuously measured vessels automatically in near real time to the international database Thetis-EU (http://emsa.europa.eu/psc- main/thetis.html).

Results from compaspections carried out by the water police or the port state control (PSC) at the port of calling. Due to the large number of vessels calling ports inside the ECA regions, only a small numbrable remote measurement carried out in other states (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, and Belgium) will be reported by the national operators to this database, too. As all national authorities of EMSA member states do have access, the Thetis-EU database enables a quick data exchange to trigger on board inspections and therefore to increase the inspections efficiency in all countries. Budget: In-kind contribution: Monitoring network7) Funding program Next-Generation Maritime Technologies (ff: BMWi) Beschreibung: The Next-Generation Maritime Technologies funding program is geared towards research and development projects in the pre-competitive phase. The funding program promotes maritime technologies, which contribute to safety and reliability, environmental and climate protection and energy efficiency. The current focus areas of the program are, among others, environmentally friendly drive technologies ("green shipping"), the innovative technologies for safe energy and raw material extraction from the sea or for the maintenance of offshore wind parks. Research ranges from industrial basic research through to the development of pilot plants and technology demonstrator models. Budget: 34,000,000 USD 8) Partnership for Regional Ocean Governance: International Forum for Advancing Regional Ocean Governance (ff: BMUB) Beschreibung: The overall objective of the project is to strengthen regional cooperation for the protection and sustainable development of the oceans. The current fragmented nature of marine governance is becoming increasingly incapable of adequately responding to the ever more complex impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems and developing integrated solutions. Therefore new forms of solution-oriented knowledge generation and transdisciplinary exchange are needed to find suitable responses. The Partnership for Regional Ocean Governance (PROG) that is supported by the German Sustainability Strategy will be starting point for the development of a conceptual approach for effective cross-sectoral governance for the protection and sustainable use of the oceans, and regional exchanges of "good-practice" examples. Through this project existing structures will be supoprted and further strengthened in dialogue with State actors, civil society, and science, as well as interested representatives of regional and international organizations. In addition to help advancing governance processes within marine regions ("regional cooperation"), a focus shall be given to learning and dialogue processes between regions ("region-to-region"), as well as between the regional and global levels ("region-to global"). These approaches shall be developed through and discussed with national and international partners at a first international conference (PROG FORUM) with a view to discuss its long-term application for strengthening international cooperation in the field of marine protection, both at regional and at the UN level. Budget: 620.000 USD Beschreibung:The Scoping Process: Blue Oceans is part of the Research Programme MARE:N of the BMBF. It's main goal is the participation of the interested public, mainly researchers, in the

thematical development of national funding programmes. Gaps and targets will be indentified and adressed during the policy process to ensure that specific and tailor-made measures of funding are implemented. Following this process the most pressing scientific topics in marine research can be identified to guarantee an effective implementation of SDG 14 as a whole. Scoping Processes ("Agandaprozesse") are a major tool within the Research Programme MARE:N of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and are proven to be effective measures for a strategic and focused funding of marine resreach. Budget: 400 Mio. USD for the next 10 yrs. Beschreibung: The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) will be the first year-round expedition into the central Arctic exploring the Arctic climate system. The results of MOSAiC will contribute to enhance understanding of the regional and global consequences of Arctic climate change and sea-ice loss and improve weather and climate predictions. As such it will support safer maritime and offshore operations, contribute to an improved scientific basis for future fishery and traffic along northern sea routes, increase coastal-community resilience, and support science-informed decision-making and policy development. Improved understanding of the impact of Arctic climate change on conditions world-wide will provide stakeholders and decision-makers with improved knowledge for adapting to climate change and develop target oriented mitigation strategies. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF provides the base budet for the Alfred-Wegener-Institute as leading research insitute including the RV "POLARSTERN" in support of the project. Budget: Base Budget for the Alfred-Wegener-Insitute including the RV Sonne. Beschreibung: Activities of deep-sea mining will indisputably affect the status of the environment by disturbing the seafloor and the overlying water column. The habitats of unique benthic and pelagic communities may be affected depending on the technologies used as well as on the size of the area impacted directly by mining and indirectly by the dispersion of sediment plumes and mining debris. The JPI Oceans Pilot Action "Ecological Aspects of Deep-Sea Mining" assesses the ecological impacts which could arise from commercial mining activities in the deep-sea. Core of the project are three expeditions visiting several nodule license areas and a protected area in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) as well as the disturbance and recolonization experiment (DISCOL) in the Peru Basin, which was conducted 26 years ago. Germany will substatially support the project and the further development of guidelines and standards for deep sea exploitation. Budget: 3,000,000 USD The German Government supports research addressing the sustainable use and management of living marine resources, including aspects related to the impact of anthropogenic environmental stressors such as marine pollution. An issue of growing concern in this context is the presence and effects of marine litter on marine organisms, including commercial and non-commercial fish species. The PlasM project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture aims at a better understanding of the presence and impact of plastic litter on fishes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

The project PlasM contributes to the achievement of SDG 14 as well as the G7 Action Plan to Combat Marine litter. Marine litter is a global problem. In particular, plastic litter in the sea is problematic due to its persistence and potential effects on marine organisms. In Europe, about 70-80% of total marine litter consists of plastics. Especially smaller particles, microplastics, which by definition are particles smaller than 5 mm, are regarded as ecologically relevant. Microplastics can be taken up by marine organisms, accumulate in the food chain and cause harm to the organism as well as being the source of contaminants. PlasM investigates the amount of plastic litter in marine fish in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea as well as in adjacent waters. In addition, the potential negative impact of plastic on fish health will be investigated by means of field and experimental studies. The overall aim of PlasM is a better evaluation of the risk posed by plastic litter to marine fishes. Budget: ?