Biblioteca

The proposal for a United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 (Ocean Decade) was first brought to the international community by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC) in 2016 in a period where ocean science was largely invisible on the international policy landscape. While the 2030 Agenda included the major milestone of a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) related to the ocean in the form of SDG14 - Life below water, there was little other recognition of the importance of the contribution of the ocean to the achievement of many of the other SDGs, and limited discussion of the role of the ocean, or ocean science, in achieving global aspirations for climate change, biodiversity conservation or food security just to name a few. Fast forward to 2024 and the context has radically changed, and the role of the ocean as a key influence in the condition of social, economic, and ecological systems has never been more visible. The recent adoption of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), the Ocean-Climate Dialogue under the United Nations Framework Convention on...