Circular Governance Oslo - Action plan to reduce Plastic Pollution
To prevent plastic from entering the environment and reaching the Oslo Fjord, and to remove existing plastic pollution, an action plan with short-term and long-term measures was co-created by many stakeholders in Oslo.
The collaboration of several municipal sectors was unique in this project. It was cooperation of the Agency for Urban Environment, Agency for Improvement and Development, Agency for Waste Management, Agency for Water and Sewerage Works, Agency for Planning and Building Services (including the urban ecology hub “By Kuben”), and Oslo Port Authority.
Oslo initiated many actions in order to reach the goal. The action plan provides the city administration, for instance, with concrete tools on how to act circular and reduce the consumption on single-use plastics and encourage other stakeholders to do the same. In order to stimulate citizens' initiatives, it is important to promote sharing and functional economy as well as raise awareness and coach the citizens.
To stimulate entrepreneurs and innovation, the city of Oslo creates incentives to attract circular business.
Key directions for circular governance in Oslo
- Cooperation with different stakeholders is essential in developing a realistic (but ambitious) action plan. This will contribute to a stronger sense of ownership to the content and consequently stronger efforts of commitment.
- When developing an action plan one should work in parallel with developing a results framework to ensure the ability to measure results and the effects of adopted measures.
- Anchoring of the action plan should be made at a high level to ensure political commitment, however also down the line to the different municipal bodies to ensure sound follow-up of measures.