The 2022 UN Ocean Conference is co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal and will feature official plenary sessions as well as in person and online side events. The full official programme is available here and the side event programmes are available here.
EMB will be represented at the conference by both Secretariat members and Ambassadors, and is involved in the organization of several official side events:
- Oceans and Human Health: the importance of SDG14 to other Sustainable Development Goals (29 June, 18:00 WEST / 19:00 CEST, online), which will showcase a variety of perspectives and subjects within the theme of Oceans and Human Health through a panel of voices from universities, nonprofits, and governments on multiple continents. This activity is linked to EMBs work in Oceans and Human Health and the ongoing community of practitioners EMB supports via a dedicated OHH LinkedIn Group;
- The Ocean as a global common - connecting generations of stakeholders through storytelling (30 June, 10:30 WEST / 11:30 CEST, in person), which will encourage trans-generational dialogue and emphasize the importance of creating one Ocean generation connected through personal experiences, shared knowledge and storytelling. This theme builds on the recommendations of EMBs flagship publication Navigating the Future V, as well as our work in Marine Science Communication and the EU4Ocean Ocean Literacy Platform. Rebecca Zitoun will speak at this event;
- Evaluating Science, Valuing the Ocean (30 June, 13:30 WEST / 14:30 CEST, online), a roundtable discussion which will consider how can we ensure ocean scientists in all regions are equipped to provide us with the science we need for the Ocean we want. Sheila Heymans and Rebecca Zitoun will both speak at this event.
EMB has also been invited to speak at several side events:
- Developing the capacity we need for the ocean we want (29 June, 18:00 WEST / 19:00 CEST, online), which will discuss designing and implementing an action plan to accelerate global capacity development efforts and responses to achieve SDG-14 and the 2030 agenda in the current decade. Rebecca Zitoun will speak at this event;
- The Charter for the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 (30 June, 14:00 WEST / 15:00 CEST, in person); where the Mission Ocean Charter will officially be launched. Sheila Heymans will speak at this event.
In addition, EMB has been officially invited to attend:
- Digital Ocean Systems to Support and Strengthen Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (27 June, 18:45 WEST / 19:45 CEST, in person (invitation only)), which will describe the decision-making support tools that will be made possible by new digital ocean analysis and prediction systems and will initiate an inter-community dialogue about the Ocean information that States need to support SDG policies and actions in food security, economic development, climate, and disaster risk reduction;
- The Launch of Ireland’s ‘Our Shared Ocean’ Programme and 80 Years of Ireland-Portugal Relations reception (29 June, 13:30-14:30 WEST / 14:30-15:30 CEST, in person (invitation only)) on board the Irish Naval Service vessel L.E. George Bernard Shaw.
The EMB was invited to make a formal intervention in the Plenary meeting.
The University of Brest (UBO), an EMB member via the French Universites Marines Consortium, mobilized its partner networks, including the EMB University Consortium Panel (UCP), to initiate a joint effort of early career researchers for the One Ocean Summit in Brest (February 2022). Following this, more than sixty PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from different nationalities and disciplines worked together to propose a common vision of the challenges and opportunities for research and research training in marine sciences. They aim to present this call for action during the Conference. You can read the full call for action here.
You can follow live social media posting during the week from Lisbon on our Twitter and Instagram accounts.