The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development will address deep disciplinary understanding of ocean processes, strengthen interdisciplinary dialogues and promote solution-oriented research to generate new knowledge and innovative technologies to support countries as well as societal actors to achieve sustainable development.

The UN Decade will build on existing partnerships and technologies and create new ones to enhance and expand the global scientific capacity required to collect issue-specific information to meet the constantly evolving needs of ocean and coastal zone managers and planners.

Ocean science can raise the capacity of all nations and peoples to pursue evidence-based sustainable development pathways to meet the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN Decade will seek to fill gaps in the global distribution of scientific capacity, data and knowledge, especially in relation to the science needed to achieve the SDGs. This will include the scientific capacity needs of coastal communities and in particular the most vulnerable in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs).

The UN Decade will not be designed by the scientific community alone, but will be driven by the needs of society as a whole, with the achievement of the sustainable development goals as its primary objective. The Decade will bring together a wide variety of stakeholders to meet these challenges, including scientists from all relevant disciplines and countries, decision-makers, communications professionals, civil society, the philanthropic sector, and key economic actors.

Like all UN approaches, the process will be people-based, making the most of the world’s combined scientific capacity, societal knowledge (including indigenous knowledge), and technological innovation. The Decade will bring together researchers from many disciplines, integrating natural, social and engineering sciences, as well as traditional and indigenous knowledge.

The economic and societal value and importance of ocean science in supporting the knowledge generation to maintain the services provided by the ocean to society is not widely recognized across all components of society. As a result, the ocean science required for evidence-based decision-making is rarely supported to an extent that would facilitate the knowledge generation needed. The Decade will better understand and quantify these VALUES (through multidisciplinary approaches) and improve current societal understanding of the benefits of knowledge underpinned by ocean science for sustainable ocean development.

Governments and multilateral agencies alone cannot fund ocean science at the level that is economically and socially required, especially given the push for new sustainable blue growth. Nor can the existing funding model be expected to provide all the science and data that are needed to meet SDGs. The Decade will work to find a more strategic, multifaceted, multi-sectoral approach to funding ocean science and data; one that builds on the monetary value of ocean data and science to the commercial sector, aligns with philanthropic goals and continues to meet societal needs.

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, as the coordinating agency of the UN Decade, was mandated to prepare an Implementation Plan to be finalized by 2020 for consideration by the UN General Assembly.

An Executive Planning Group (EPG) composed of 19 international experts was established as an advisory body to the IOC Secretariat with the main tasks to provide advice on the form and structure of the Decade, support the drafting of the Implementation Plan as well as engage and consult relevant communities.

To prepare this Implementation Plan, IOC will engage a series of global and regional planning meeting in consultation with the United Nations Member States and agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations as well as other relevant stakeholders.

A First Global Planning Meeting, held in Copenhagen, in May this year, will offer a unique forum to co-design research strategies, develop plans, stimulate new partnerships, identify the key priorities to be addressed for the Decade as well as concrete deliverables to achieve the six Decade’s societal objectives (a clean, healthy and resilient, predicted, safe, sustainable and productive as well as transparent and accessible ocean).

This first meeting will be followed by a worldwide series of regional consultation meetings where regional stakeholders will have the opportunity to further discuss and prioritize issues, identify knowledge gaps and define users’ specific needs.

The Regional Meeting for the North Pacific will be hosted by Japan (Tokyo) from 31 July to 2 August 2019 and will be organized by the IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC), in close cooperation with the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), Japanese National Committee for IOC/UNESCO, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the University of Tokyo and other partners in the region. The three-day meeting will include a mix of plenary and break-out sessions to facilitate international, and interdisciplinary discussions.

The regional workshop will provide a platform for advancing dialogue amongst scientists and academia, policy makers and managers, civil society organizations, ocean businesses and industries, and donors and foundations towards the identification and development of solution-oriented approaches to ocean sustainability.