The 2022 UN Ocean Conference will be held from 27 June to 1 July 2022 in Lisbon. It will provide a critical opportunity to mobilize partnerships and increase investment in science-driven approaches to achieve SDG 14. Organizations in Geneva are actively supporting processes in the run-up to the conference.
About the 2022 UN Ocean Conference
The ocean is our planet’s largest ecosystem. It is our life source, supporting humanity’s sustenance and that of every other organism on earth. It stabilizes climate, stores carbon, nurtures unimaginable biodiversity, and directly supports human well-being through food and energy resources, as well as by providing cultural and recreational services. Not to mention, the ocean is key to our economy with an estimated 40 million people being employed by ocean-based industries by 2030.
The 2022 UN Ocean Conference, co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, comes at a critical time as the world is strengthening its efforts to mobilize, create and drive solutions to realize the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. As one of the first milestones of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ newly launched Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals, the Conference will propel much needed science-based innovative solutions aimed at starting a new chapter of global ocean action.
“The first ocean conference in 2017 was a game changer in terms of waking the world up to the Ocean’s problems. I think this conference in Lisbon in June is going to be about providing the solutions to the problems that we’ve alerted the world to. And I’m very confident that those solutions emerge when we get there.” Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, 18 March 2022 (Source: UN News)
Programme and Side Events
The UN Ocean Conference will focus on some of the major challenges and opportunities faced by the ocean today. The conference will include plenaries, as well as a series of interactive dialogues on the following themes:
- Addressing Marine Pollution
- Promoting and strengthening sustainable ocean-based economies, in particular for Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries
- Managing, protecting, conserving and restoring marine and coastal ecosystems
- Minimizing and addressing ocean acidification, deoxygenation and ocean warming
- Making fisheries sustainable and providing access for small–scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets
- Increasing scientific knowledge and developing research capacity and transfer of marine technology
- Enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
- Leveraging interlinkages between Sustainable Development Goal 14 and other Goals towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda
The conference is expected to adopt a political declaration on “Our ocean, our future, our responsibility“. Drafts and inputs from Member States can be found here.
Various side events, both in-person and online, will be organized in the margins of the official meetings of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference. Side events may be organized by Member States, Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs), UN entities and all other duly accredited and registered entities. Priority will be given to events organized by Member States and those organized in partnership by multiple entities. All interested parties are strongly encouraged to partner with others to organize a side event. The call for side events is open until 8 April 2022.
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Geneva Environment Network, 30 March 2022. More information.
