Dr Axel Borchmann is deputy head of division for Marine Protection at Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Protection, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection with former occupations in the Ministry including International and European aspects of water management, circular economy an resource efficiency and parliamentary issues of Environment Committee of German Bundestag. Focussing on pollution of the marine environment, currently he is inter alia head of delegation and national focal point for the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution and headed the German delegation at UNEA5 as well as the UNEA Ad-hoc Expert Group (AHEG) on the topic marine litter and plastic pollution. He is head of delegation for IMO London Convention and Protocol as well as member of the German delegation for G7, G20, IMO MEPC and PPR. He is or has been i.a. chairing a Contact Group at INC, the Intergovernmental Review Panel of the Global Programme of Action under UNCLOS and as well as IMO LC Scientific Groups Working and Correspondence Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics. In addition he is supervising the BMUV grant programme against marine litter "Marine Debris Framework – Regional hubs around the globe“ (Marine:DeFRAG)". By profession a PhD in environmental engineering and educated in law he strives to combine technical aspects of implementation with the legal and political dimension on national, regional and international level.