5 Key Ocean Events
Catching Up on Ocean Events
February was a great time to dive back into my research of the blue economy. From negotiations on the High Seas treaty to the Economist World Ocean Summit, February and March are a host to ocean conferences the outcomes of which will shape action for the years and decades to come.
While each of these events will surely produce outcomes worthy of separate analysis, I thought I would start by offering an overview of what to keep an eye on as updates and commitments trickle out over the coming days and weeks.
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Here are five ocean events worth keeping an eye on or reviewing right now:
UN High Seas Treaty Negotiations (Feb 20-March 3)
Economist Ocean Summit (Feb 27-March 1)
Our Ocean Panama (March 2-3)
UN World Water Conference (March 22-24)
IMPAC5 (Feb 3-9)
High Seas Treaty Negotiations
If you are interested in the ocean economy or just sustainability in general, then your eyes have already been on updates from the UN. As this article from the Guardian points out, perhaps not enough people are paying attention.
‘One of the most important talks no one has heard of’: why the high seas treaty matters | The Guardian
I’m working on a complete recap of the High Seas Treaty negotiations, but suffice it to say, an agreement here will be the framework for all ocean decisions and protections for decades going forward.
For now, here are some links:
High Seas Alliance Treaty Tracker
UN High Seas Treaty | Oceanographic
Economist World Ocean Summit (Feb 27 - March 1)
The 10th Annual Economist World Ocean Summit wrapped up today. While I understand the world going back to live, in-person events, being able to attend this event virtually the last couple of years has been amazing for me.
While it wasn’t possible for me to attend or tune in this time around, keeping an eye on twitter revealed some interesting components of the event.
Just prior to the event, the Economist World Ocean Initiative released their outlook for 2023. If you are interested in an overview of some of the key issues facing an expanding sustainable blue economy, it is worth a read and can be downloaded here.
Economist Sustainability Week
For those unable to attend Ocean Summit, the upcoming Sustainability Week, also hosted by Economist, offers a free virtual attendee pass. There are topics here that certainly overlap with the ocean including biodiversity and natural capital, circularity, adaptation, and meeting the SDGs.
You can register for the Economist Sustainability Week here. See you there!
Our Ocean Panama (March 2-3)
The Our Ocean Panama 2023 event is happening right now. On their website you can tune into a live stream of the main conference room, but not the side panels (where the action really is).
Our Ocean Panama 2023 Homepage
Our Ocean focuses on discussions and obtaining commitments related to five key areas including MPAs, Sustainable Blue Economies, Climate Change, Maritime Security, Sustainable Fisheries, and Marine Pollution.
Already, some tangible commitments are starting to flow from this conference. Again, this conference will certainly deserve its own debrief, but here are some headlines for now.
Panama announced a commitment to protecting over 50% of its territorial ocean
Blue Carbon Action Partnership will work to amplify quality blue carbon efforts
EU announces 816 million Euro worth of commitments to protect the ocean
UN Water Conference
Looking ahead at a continued busy month at the UN is the 2023 Water Conference. While the Water Conference is technically geared toward SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation, there are sure to be some issues that ocean watchers.
https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023
IMPAC5
5th International Marine Protected Areas Congress
The purpose of IMPAC is to provide a forum to follow up on commitments made in other global venues related to MPAs. MPAs are such an important segment of ocean projection and reaching 30x30 goals.
Podcast: Protecting Blue Nature
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