The UN Ocean Decade Explained with Alison Clausen
Why the UN declared an Ocean Decade -
The United Nations Ocean Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) is more than a global framework—it’s a chance to rethink how science informs action. In this episode, Alison Clausen, Global Deputy Director of the Ocean Decade at UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, explains what the Decade is aiming to achieve by 2030 and how its legacy will carry forward. We discuss the role of Indigenous and local knowledge, the meaning of “success” beyond the ten-year mark, and how upcoming international ocean conferences fit into the bigger picture. Whether you’re just hearing about the Ocean Decade for the first time or looking for context behind the headlines, this conversation offers a clear and timely introduction.
Episode Guest: Alison Clausen
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Hosted, produced, and edited by Clark Marchese
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Transcript:
Clark Marchese (00:11.544)
Hello there. Thank you so much for joining us here on Oceanography, the podcast that dives deep into the science of our seas, the latest in marine research, and the scientists working hard to better understand and protect our blue planet. Today, we are setting an ocean agenda.
Clark Marchese (00:55.126)
Alright everybody, welcome back. If you have read the title of this episode already, you will know that we are diving into something a little bit different today. This is our first ever ocean policy episode. Now, normally our episodes are pretty science heavy and they will continue to be, but every so often I like to throw in these interdisciplinary episodes into the mix. And it won't always be policy, maybe we'll have some on the ocean economy or ocean related art or activism and things like that.
But today, it's going to be International Ocean Science Policy Interface. And don't worry if that word sounds a little jargony, it will all be broken down very shortly. As you may have guessed, if you have listened to our first five episodes so far, I am not a scientist myself. My true background is in environmental policy, so this is a pretty exciting episode for me. And what a way to start, because today we are talking about the United Nations Ocean Decade. If that sounds important, it's because it is.
The UN Ocean Decade is a global effort to accelerate ocean science and make sure that knowledge actually gets into the hands of people making decisions about our shared future. And it's also a network of a bunch of different projects all around the world working toward that goal in a bunch of different ways. In fact, this podcast, Oceanography, was endorsed as an ocean decade project for our work in communicating science to the public. So I'm super excited to be sharing more about this UN framework today.
And as always, I hope our episodes can serve as resources to learn more about ocean science, but this episode in particular, I think will be a really good entry point for anyone who has never heard of the United Nations Ocean Decade and wants to get an introductory and nuanced understanding of what it's all about. And for our guest today, we went straight to the top. In just a moment, we are going to be speaking with Alison Claussen, the Global Deputy Director of the United Nations Ocean Decade, who works at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in Paris.
Now, all of these acronyms and organization names will also become clear soon. I promise we're going to unpack this whole system. And in this conversation, we'll talk about how the Ocean Decade fits into the UN framework. We'll touch on the Decade's actions and the challenges it's tackling, as well as its goals for the end of the 10 years. I should also mention that the official Decade spans from 2021 to 2030. So we are right smack in the middle. We're also going to talk about how ocean science must inform ocean action.
Clark Marchese (03:15.852)
and we'll learn about the role of indigenous and local knowledge in the decade. In sum, this is a great episode to learn how science, policy, and society can work together. Lastly, to help all of us follow this going forward, we're going to get a bit more of an understanding about the meetings and conferences that track these efforts and the next ones coming up. So the next time you see a big ocean conference in the news, you'll have a bit more context. Okay, I think that's just about it. Before we get started, just a little shout out to our Instagram account.
The Oceanography podcast is one of many in the Pine Forest Media Network and all of our podcasts tackle a different environmental issue and our digital footprint is taking another step. We have a little baby Instagram account that we're excited to be starting so we can share even more resources out there that you can't really do in an audio format. You can follow us at Pine Forest Media for behind the scenes updates and if you want to go even deeper, Patreon subscribers get extra resources at the end of each month connected to our episodes. and all of those links are in the episode description. Okay, I think with that, we are ready to go ahead and get started. Let's set an ocean agenda.
Clark Marchese (04:35.934)
Alright, we are recording. Well, Alison Claussen, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. Now, normally when I'm speaking to a researcher, one of the first questions I ask them is how they got interested in deep sea worms or bioluminescent sharks or whatever it happens to be. But in this case, maybe I can just ask you to introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to this space that you found yourself in now at the intersection of ocean science and policy.
Alison Clausen
Sure, and very nice to be here, Clark. Thank you very much for the invitation to be on this podcast. So my name is Alison Claussen. I'm the Deputy Coordinator of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. And I'm based here in Paris, and I work for the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, which is the agency, essentially, that coordinates the ocean decade, as we call it.
And how I got here was a bit of a winding path, I would say. I'm actually an engineer. My first degree was in engineering and in environmental engineering, which I think was a first moment where I really saw the importance and the influence that science and technology can have on the way that society works, on the way that we make our decisions, on the way that we are able to make choices about our impact on the environment. I have worked for quite a long time in developing countries in Southeast Asia and in Africa. In that space, I was working a lot on climate change adaptation, on marine protected areas, on fisheries, working with local communities to try and sustainably manage their resources, their marine resources, while still allowing livelihoods, community wellbeing, and so on. And I think that's really the experience that led me more directly to this role, because when you work in those locations, and I worked a lot in Madagascar and in Vietnam, you really see the importance of having data, of having science to inform decision making at all levels. So that's one thing that was very much sort of the community grassroots level. But then you also see the influence and the importance of having strong national, regional, international policy frameworks so that communities do have a space within which they can work where there are policies in place that help them to protect that balance between natural resources and their lives and wellbeing.
Alison Clausen (06:53.218)
So that experience led to, I guess, an interest, a curiosity about the United Nations system. And about five years ago, I was lucky enough to get this position at the IOC at UNESCO, which is really very much on the forefront of that link between ocean science and policy.
Clark Marchese
Okay, that sounds amazing. And I love to ask this question at the front because, you know, whatever someone's career happens to be, I usually end up hearing sort of an explanation of this winding road that led them to where they are now. And I think that as listeners start to understand more about what the ocean decade is in the following conversation, they'll see how, you know, most of what you discussed kind of culminated into this position when you're now in a way that makes quite a lot of sense. So that's great. Now, to understand what the Ocean Decade is, maybe it's best to start by locating it in this network of international organizations under which it falls. We've got the United Nations, we've got UNESCO, and we've got the IOC, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. So some of these may be familiar to listeners, others maybe not. Can we do a quick rundown of what these bodies are and how the Ocean Decade is situated in them?
Alison Clausen
Sure. So at the highest level we have United Nations, which is essentially the governments or the member states as we call them, who sit together in the United Nations and come together in the General Assembly to make decisions about a whole range of things, not just environment obviously, but many of the other issues we hear about in the news. So one of the things that the United Nations at the highest level are responsible for is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and for the Sustainable Development Goals or the SDGs as we call them.
Clark Marchese
Maybe just quickly for listeners, the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, are a pretty important concept in the international policy space. These goals represent a set of global targets adopted in 2015 to guide action on some of the world's biggest challenges and international priorities. There are 17 of them. SDG 1, for example, is no poverty. 2 is no hunger, and SDG 5 is gender equality. So, quite broad, quite important and clearly we have a lot of work still ahead of us, but a handful of these SDGs do reference the environment specifically.
Alison Clausen
One of those SDGs, SDG 14, specifically relates to the ocean, life underwater it is called. And the United Nations, again, in that sort of that full body at the highest level in 2017, proclaimed that there was a need for a decade that really focused on ocean science and ocean knowledge so that we could better achieve the goals that we'd set out for ourselves in SDG 14 through the United Nations General Assembly. They essentially asked the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which is a separate body within UNESCO to lead the preparation of the ocean decade and then coordinate its implementation. So you have the United Nations at the highest level that recognize this need for ocean science and knowledge. And then they essentially asked IOC, which is the United Nations agency, specialized agency that is responsible for ocean science to lead the process of preparing and then implementing the ocean decade. And so we started that process in 2018 and then implementation of the decade started in 2021.
Clark Marchese
Okay, perfect. I think that getting that structure down is going to be super helpful for understanding who those different actors are, if these acronyms come up again, which I'm sure they will. So just to recap, the Ocean Decade is the brainchild of the United Nations in their efforts to achieve our sustainable development goals. And then we have UNESCO, and UNESCO is an acronym, UNESCO. The UN for United Nations, ESC for Education, Science and Culture, and the O is for Organization.
Clark Marchese (10:35.682)
So it's an organization that helps the UN achieve their goals in those areas. And then in the science umbrella of UNESCO, we have the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. And the UN thought it would be a great idea to enlist their help and resources in making the ocean decade happen. Okay, I hope that's clear for everyone. And now that we have that down, I'm wondering if you can give us an overview of what the UN Ocean Decade is, and specifically what it's trying to achieve by the end of the decade.
Alison Clausen
Yeah, I mean, it's a very, it's a very big complex thing, but I think what it's trying to achieve is, I would say twofold.
The first thing that is trying to achieve is to really increase awareness, understanding, investment and resources for ocean science. To really make it very, very evident to governments, to private sector, to NGOs, to philanthropy that better ocean science and more ocean science is absolutely essential if we're going to fix some of the biggest challenges that the world is facing today, whether that be food security or climate change or the biodiversity crisis.
Ocean science is often overlooked. It's often invisible in this. And so the first thing about the decade is pushed to really ensure that there is recognition of the importance of ocean science. The second piece or the second objective is really then providing a space, a framework, a process, the mechanisms for different groups from across society. And again, looking at the scientific community, governments, NGOs, private sector to come together in a very neutral place to discuss what are the key gaps in ocean science and then collaborate to develop new projects, new programs, new initiatives to fill those gaps and very importantly, not just generate science for science sakes, but to ensure that that science gets to where it needs to go so that it is influencing policy and it is influencing decision making. So the decade is about both the visibility of the importance of ocean science, but also the doing of the ocean science really providing that.
Alison Clausen (12:37.998)
place for these diverse actors to come together to generate and use ocean science.
Clark Marchese
Okay, so those are some pretty important goals. And that is sort of the what of what is the Ocean Decade. I have a lot of questions about the how, which we will cover, but maybe first I can ask you about the why. Why did the UN decide that we need an Ocean Decade? We've seen climate change in the news for a while, but was there any sort of moment or movement or event that prompted this particular focus on the oceans?
Alison Clausen
These discussions all started happening around 2015, 2016. So at that time, not only were the discussions ongoing about the different SDGs, including SDG 14, but there was also discussion in the climate change space about the role of the ocean in mitigating climate change and providing solutions to climate change. There were discussions around biodiversity and the global biodiversity framework and the role of marine biodiversity. The high seas treaty or the BB &J agreement was still being negotiated at that time. It's now, it's since been adopted.
Clark Marchese
Quickly for listeners the BBNJ agreement is the biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions agreement.
Alison Clausen (13:48.174)
There were a lot of different discussions going on around different elements of the global environment, around natural resources. And what they all had in common was people were saying, we're not going to be able to meet these ambitions. We're not going to have to implement these agreements if we don't have the ocean science and knowledge. So it was really that sort of groundswell of recognition that there needed to be a coordinated and concerted effort to identify the gaps to generate the knowledge that we needed and then again, to make sure that it got where it needed to go to aid in the implementation of these policy frameworks that were emerging at that time.
Clark Marchese
Okay, I think it's good for us to be aware of the momentum that was building. You know, the UN didn't just wake up one morning and say we need an ocean decade. And also, beyond the context of it all, it's good to recognize the work of the people who built that momentum that we now get to write. Alright, let's get a little bit deeper into some of the weeds here. In addition to raising awareness about the importance of ocean science to inform action, I understand that the ocean decade has also identified 10 different challenges surrounding the ocean.
We might not have time to get to all 10 of them now. I'll definitely point listeners to resources in the show notes where they can find the list of all 10. But maybe I can ask you, are there any that you find perhaps the most urgent or the most overlooked or those that you think need to be addressed most practically?
Alison Clausen
Yeah, it's a really, really good question. do encourage listeners to go onto the website and have a look at the different challenges and the different activities that we have underway to meet each of these challenges. Last year, so in 2024, in April, we had the Ocean Decade Conference, was a major, yeah, 2,600 people were there to talk about exactly this question. Where are we up to with the challenges and what are some of the biggest gaps that are still out there that we should be focusing on for the rest of the decade, essentially?
Alison Clausen (15:32.244)
And will we actually be repeating this process in 2027 to sort of refine and so on? But I think the results of the 2024 conference, which are summarized in a statement called the Barcelona Statement, help answer this question. And I would say that a few of them that come to mind are around deep sea ecosystems, really, really improving our understanding of deep sea ecosystems. There are obviously a number of threats that are potentially acting on deep sea ecosystems. There are issues around climate vulnerability of deep sea ecosystems and the role of deep sea ecosystems in mitigating climate change that we just don't fully understand. With the technology that is now becoming more and more available and accessible, we have an opportunity that we've never had before to really understand deep sea ecosystems.
A second one is around sustainable, equitable and resilient ocean-based economies. think there are a lot of small island developing states, a lot of least developed countries, developed countries as well, that are really looking to the ocean to underpin sustainable development in the future, whether that be through shipping or tourism or fisheries or what have you. This results in an ocean space that is... You know, it's never been this crowded. There are so many demands on ocean space. are so many different uses of the ocean space. And how do you generate the science and knowledge that allows you to plan for, you know, and to make choices about some of these trade-offs that have to be made between industry, between tourism, between marine protected areas, between nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation, mitigation, and so forth. And then a third one I'd like to mention is around the infrastructure needed for ocean observations and data. You often think about the scientists in the lab, the field work being done in the mangroves and so on.
Alison Clausen (17:15.084)
fundamental pieces that underpins all of the ocean science that's being done is ocean observations. So measuring the physical parameters, the biological parameters of the ocean. And these need to be, you know, huge geographic areas, very long time series of data. It's expensive to do because you're talking about inaccessible areas. And to date, a lot of that investment in ocean observations and data infrastructure has been from governments. And this is hugely important.
But it has been challenging because sometimes it's sort of on shorter time scales. It's not always that well coordinated and it's not necessarily perceived as an essential public good. Whereas when you think about weather stations, know, everybody just understands that you need weather stations because that's how you predict the weather. But the fact is you can't predict the weather without ocean observations because the ocean affects our weather. And so there's a change of perception that we see as a real priority need about the type and scale of investment that is made in ocean observations and in ocean data infrastructure so that it's really seen as critical public infrastructure. Those are just three of them. Again, there are more in the Barcelona Statement, but those are three that we're particularly focusing on at the moment.
Clark Marchese
Okay, I really like this idea of ocean research or ocean information as a public good. I guess that's part of sort of the ethos of the decade is to make people aware of that as well. And as I said, I'll link the document in the show notes so that people can find more information about all 10 challenges, but maybe just to plug this podcast as well. I think when I was looking at the list, you know, in cross-referencing it to our list of upcoming and previous episodes, we do kind of touch on, you know, most if not all of them in one way or another. So I encourage listeners to keep this resource in their back pocket. And I'll just say that there. But since we have 10 challenges and 10 years to get them addressed, I'm not going to ask you today what we have planned for after 2030, but we're in 2025 now. I'm wondering...
Clark Marchese (19:08.578)
Did the Ocean Decade from the beginning define what success would look like at the end of the ten years, and if so, are we on track?
Alison Clausen
This is a great question. We did in, I would say at a relatively high strategic level. First of all, end of the decade, we want everybody from the person on the street to the government official, to the people working in the, I don't know, soft drink manufacturing company to understand the importance of the ocean, but the importance of understanding our oceans so that, you know, end of the ocean decade, the importance of ocean sciences is just a given. So that's one piece. The second piece is that we hope that around these 10 big challenges that we just talked about, we have around 60 global research programs that are working, different ones working on different challenges, most of them working on more than one of the challenges. We also have a network of around 13 coordination hubs that are working to connect and ignite new ideas and new funding. And we have different national structures and groups working on different issues. So what we hope at the end of the decade that those continue on as the sort of the legacy pieces of the decade. So for example, we have incredible projects or programs underway that are looking at blue carbon and nature-based solutions and seeing at the end of the decade that success is that those programs are sort of ongoing in perpetuity because they've been able to get this momentum through the ocean decade.
Clark Marchese
Okay, I love that answer quite a lot. Setting up systems that can continue this work into the future, that's perfect. And you know, I also just spoke to someone who's an expert on marine protected areas. That episode is coming out in two weeks, so stay tuned. But one of the takeaways was, and I guess I'm spoiling it now, there's a lot of work that has to be done after you sort of mark off the areas on a map. We learned that it's an ongoing process to maintain a marine protected area. So,
Clark Marchese (21:00.118)
I guess this applies as well to the actions of the UN Ocean Decade. We have to create systems that can be maintained. Alright, we are going to shift gears a little bit to talk about a term that has been mentioned a couple of times already, which is the idea of the interface of science, policy, and society. There may be a fair number of question marks circling that term for anyone who's hearing it for the first time. Can we unpack what exactly we're getting at when we say science, policy, society, interface? And then I'll ask you how the UN decade is addressing it.
Alison Clausen
Yeah, it's a terrible phrase. And it's funny because we were just again in June at the United Nations Ocean Conference. And that is a conference for people who love the ocean and are there for the ocean. And even in that conference, people were like, stop using that phrase. It's actually UN phrase. Nobody else knows what it means. So yes, we need to, we need to work on our, our, on our communications.
But essentially what we're, what we're trying to say there is that whether you're making decisions for policy or whether you're another type of stakeholder within society. you're a private sector company looking to site your factory. You're a tourism operator looking to see where you can take your tourists to observe coral reefs and fisheries or your general public. you want to understand better about how to manage your household waste and rubbish and so on. What we're essentially saying is that all of those decisions, whether they be individual decisions, whether they be institutional decisions, should be informed by the best available science. And that science should be relevant, it should be timely, and it should be accessible in forms that the policymaker, that the private sector company, that the person on the street can access it, have confidence in it, and use it to make decisions.
Clark Marchese (22:47.394)
got it. So actually that definition helps us quite a bit to understand a goal of the decade which is to close the gap between science and the public or the policymaker etc. And that actually leads me quite naturally to ask you next, what are the challenges along the way in closing that gap?
Alison Clausen
There are many, I would say. think there's different parts of society work with different languages. And I mean, even if we're, you in this case, you and I speak English, you know, we're using what we think is a common language, but the scientific community will have a very, very different language in the way that they talk about things and the way they present information than a policymaker or a politician is going to readily be able to need. If you think about the way that most science is still presented is in peer reviewed articles in journals that you probably mostly have to pay for to download and get a PDF. And then it's not necessarily presented in a way that is going to be particularly useful for, again, a private sector company or a policy makers.
But even before that, and this is something that the Ocean Decade really is trying to address by...bringing in new approaches and new ways of doing things. Sometimes the questions that are being asked by the science are not even the questions or the answers that the policymaker needs or that the industry person needs or that the general public needs. Something that the decade is trying to do is looking at how we can promote and foster and support what we call co-design, which is again, another terrible, jargony phrase, but basically means having everybody in the room from the scientist to the user of the information from the beginning of the process so that you're defining the question together, you're defining the method of obtaining the information, and then you're helping each other to interpret and apply and use that information. So we talk about co-design of ocean science and knowledge as a means of trying to close that gap and trying to overcome some of those communication barriers that exist. Now there are other barriers as well. There are time barriers. Science can take a very, very long time. There are questions around certainty and the scientific.
Alison Clausen (24:47.576)
community needing to be very, very certain about research before it can go into the public domain. Some of those challenges are always going to be there, I think, but there are approaches such as co-design that we can try and use to overcome them by helping people to communicate better between different groups who are trying to address the same challenges at the end of the day.
Clark Marchese
You know, we speak to lot of scientists on the show and we've heard, you know, more than once about the time and the resource and the funding challenges that come along with doing science. We've also discussed the difference between fundamental and applied science. So this co-design concept is really interesting for me because if it's fundamental science, maybe your research question is founded even on plain curiosity, if not a gap in the literature. And then if it's applied science, the question is kind of driven by trying to solve a specific problem perhaps even for a private corporation or for perhaps who's funding your research. We see this in medical research a lot, but I think that a lot of scientists maybe aren't trained to or just aren't kind of in the mindset of thinking to design their research questions to address a policy gap. So I think that's a wonderful idea.
Alison Clausen
Yeah, and it's something that we have really noticed to change over the last five years. And I think there is, again, you talked about momentum before, think there is slowly a growing momentum in that. I think particularly in some of those younger generations that this is going to be accepted practice. And again, not for all science, because I fully get that argument about fundamental applied science. And we are not trying to say there should be no more fundamental science. What we're trying to say is the decade is really focusing on that applied science and really trying to give tools and resources and support and mentoring about the best ways to do that. And so we're hoping that through the decade, this again is going to become accepted practice for a part of the scientific inquiry that is going on.
Clark Marchese (26:31.768)
Totally. It's a both and approach. There's something else I wanted to ask you about today, and we're switching gears again slightly. Again, in speaking to lots of scientists, we hear about the process that goes into designing a study and methodology and publication and peer review and these highly respected journals that do matter a lot in this world. But at the beginning of our conversation, you were speaking about how in earlier stages of your career, you crossed paths with different local communities around the world and how you see the threads of that work are connecting to your position today in the Ocean Decade. I'm wondering, how does the Ocean Decade make space for indigenous science or local knowledge in addition to the more maybe formalized systems of knowledge productions that a lot of us might be used to?
Alison Clausen
Yeah, and this is again somewhere where I really, really hope that we are going to leave a lasting impact through the decade. So from the outset, and so we have our sort of our guiding document, if you like, is the implementation plan for the ocean decade. And I think on the, on the first page of that, this is the document that was published in 2020 as sort of remains the central roadmap for the decade. So on the first page of that plan, we define ocean science and we very, very clearly define ocean science to include all knowledge systems, including indigenous and local knowledge.
And these, this was quite a - It was quite a thing at the time in 2020, 2021. And that's not to say that others have not been thinking about, mean, people have been thinking about this and working on this for, you know, these issues for us. There's a huge wealth of experience and expertise out there. But I think for perhaps for the IOC too, which is, you know, the ocean science body within the UN, we're talking about an ocean science decade. And yet on the first page, we're talking about ocean science and indigenous and local knowledge. And people really respected that. And I think we have had feedback from indigenous communities and local communities that they felt from the outset that there was an open door. There was an opening for a conversation with the scientific community through the decade, but it was kind of only the very first small step because then you build up.
Alison Clausen (28:30.63)
not the decade alone. There have certainly been, as I say, many, many others working on this issue and we're very proud to have contributed to the dialogue on it. But I think now compared to 2020, there is definitely a strong recognition within the scientific community of the importance of working with Indigenous and local knowledge holders. So it's not integrating, it's not combining, but it's recognising the validity of different knowledge systems. And so that's where we find ourselves in the decade now.
We have a great group, including on our Decade Advisory Board and other experts that we work with of Indigenous community leaders who work with us. And we had a group that were in Barcelona at the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference. supported a group to come to Nice in June for the United Nations Ocean Conference. And they've had a number of working sessions and workshops to develop a document that sort of gives a perspective from the Ocean Decade on some ways in which there can be true and respectful collaboration between scientific community and indigenous or traditional knowledge holders. So that's something that will be ready in the next few months. And from there we'll build on that with training courses and resources, et cetera. So that's one piece of it. On the other hand, what we're trying to do is really encourage indigenous led research in the ocean decade as well. I remember a conversation with one of our experts who was saying to me, Alison, it's not just about engaging us, it's about helping, supporting and providing us with the means to do and lead the work ourselves. I mean, it seems so obvious when you say it like that, but to hear it said like that was like, of course. I mean, it's not just about patient and engagement, it's about leadership as well, right? And so that is one thing that we've started and we've had some great collaborations with the Canadian government, with Arctic Net, which is a funding mechanism for Indigenous led research in the Arctic. And we're hoping to continue this in the Pacific where we have great partners through the Pacific community to really foster Indigenous-led research. So some of the programs and projects, we've only got a handful out of over 500, of the projects and programs endorsed under the Ocean Decade are actually Indigenous-led decade programs and projects. So that's our next big challenge. And we're hoping to have an Indigenous-led symposium that can really advance on a lot of these questions and trigger new funding and new support and resources and mechanisms. particularly for that piece around Indigenous-led research.
Clark Marchese
Okay, everything I just heard is really encouraging. And I think maybe momentum might be our key word for this conversation, because these conversations simply were not being had as often in these large international public forum five years ago as they are now. So I guess as someone who has been in these spaces of environmental science and research and policy, I've kind of watched this discourse grow in visibility. So I'm glad that this momentum is being fostered as well under the Ocean Decade.
Now, I heard a couple mentions of conferences in there as well, and that's also something I wanted to talk to you about today. In addition to whatever goes on, you know, in the negotiating room or on the ground at these conferences or even behind closed doors, they serve as kind of a media event for the public. You know, we see on the news, okay, the UN just had another conference about the ocean. But in this episode, I was hoping to give a bit more context to someone who might only hear about them as headlines. The most recent ocean conference happened this year in June in the south of France in Nice. I'm wondering if you can tell us what are the purposes of these gatherings, how often do they happen, who is responsible for organizing them. Maybe that's a good place to start. So the one, so there are actually two, well there are more than two, but the two that probably are of most relevance to us. There are two different conference series. So starting with the one that happened in Nice. So this was the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference. So this is the whole United Nations and it's actually a conference. It's the formal United Nations Conference to stock take progress on SDG 14 and to generate new action to make sure that we meet SDG 14 by 2030.
Alison Clausen (32:32.258)
So these conferences, UNUC as it's the acronym that is used, these happen every three years. These are big global convenings, probably, you know, six, 8,000 people organized by the UN secretariat in New York. And the one in Nice was particularly impressive because in the leader to the formal conference itself. There are actually three special events, one focusing on ocean science, one focusing on coastal resilience and sea level rise, and particularly on the challenges faced by coastal cities, and one focusing on finance and investment in the ocean. And there's a political declaration that came out of that conference. This one was called the Nice Ocean Action Plan, and it really highlighted some of the key commitments and key challenges and key achievements of all these players, particularly in relation to STG 14. So that's the United Nations Ocean Conference series. The next one will be in 2020.
Clark Marchese
Okay, maybe if I can just add a couple add-ons here. About the outcome document from the Nice conference, I will put a link in the show notes and perhaps I can highlight some of the commitments now. The declaration reaffirmed a shared commitment to accelerating action to prevent and significantly reduce and control marine pollution of all kinds. And if you listen to Oceanography's sister podcast by Pine Forest Media, Plastic Podcast, you'll be familiar with another set of conferences around plastics pollution that have been going on over the last two and a half years. So it makes sense that this is sort of an ongoing priority and topic of conversation. Also, the document reiterates the need to increase scientific knowledge on deep sea ecosystems, which we already spoke about here today. But again, that's only two and I will link the document in the notes if anyone is curious.
Alison Clausen (34:12.302)
The other series that we then sort of are responsible for is the Ocean Decade Conference series. Well, actually the first one was virtual. This was because of COVID, this was in 2021 and that was hosted by Germany. It was going to be in Berlin. The second one was the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference and this was in Barcelona last year. And as I mentioned, the next one will be in 2027 in Rio, in Brazil. And then the last one will be in 2030. And we don't know yet where, because we have a whole process of identifying where that the Ocean Decade Conference series is sort of timed so it falls just before, about a year before the United Nations Ocean Conference, so that it's a way of convening through the framework of the Ocean Decade, all of the players in the Ocean Decade ecosystem, the scientific community and government, industry, NGOs, philanthropy, et cetera, to identify priorities, to identify gaps, to identify needs and new initiatives that is then sort of taken to the broader United Nations Ocean Conference. So that's how the two sort of work together. There's the Ocean Decade Conference. It's a conference in and of itself, but it is also a very important preparatory step for all the scientific aspects that are taken to the United Nations Ocean Conference, which is a much broader piece. So some of the things we were just talking about about what is the legacy, what is the success of the decade, this is going to be front and center of discussions in Rio. And then we'll be able to take those discussions to the 2028. United Nations Ocean Conference and say, from a scientific point of view, the ocean decade point of view, here are the priorities that we need to be thinking about over the next two to three years before, before 2030.
Clark Marchese
Okay, that's really helpful. And then these would be ocean-specific conference series, but there's also a really big one on climate change that happens each year. You might hear it referred to as the COP29 was the last one. And we have another one coming up in November, also in Brazil. And I know that oceans are a big topic area of this conference as well. So is there any connection between these and this next one coming up in November?
Alison Clausen (36:11.552)
Yeah, it's in Belém in Brazil. And yeah, very much so. But if we're talking about the ocean decade, the two that we really focus on trying to build those links by, you know, so for example, was Barcelona and then Nice and then moving to Belém, trying to have a consistent, coherent consensus on what some of the priorities are about the ocean science needs. Using those conferences also as milestones. And the beauty about this is you get consistent messaging, but you don't always have exactly the same audience there. mean, there's obviously some overlap, but we, know, in Nice it's very, very ocean focused. And then when we go to Bellum, ocean is still important, but you're with climate scientists and climate negotiators in different parts of government. So you have exposure of these ideas and these initiatives to other parts of governments and society. But what we try and do, as I said, is just be very, very consistent in identifying needs in pushing the role and the position of ocean science and then building constituencies with different groups as we go through these different conferences.
Clark Marchese
Okay, that all makes sense. And I can see how it would be super helpful to have that consistent messaging. And we will be watching this space and following the momentum build here on the Oceanography podcast. And with that context, I think it might be time to move on to our last couple of questions. The first of which is, if anyone listening would love to get involved with the ocean decade, is there anything that sort of just the average person can do?
Alison Clausen
Definitely. And this is, this is something that is relatively new actually, but it's very exciting. And this, it's a new campaign called GenOcean. And again, I'm sure you'll be able to link to it in the show notes and so on. And this is a campaign that really aims to provide entry points for any individual to get involved in the ocean decade, particularly through citizen science, because there are so many of our decade programs and projects and activities that are, that have big components of citizen science in them and where they really need.
Alison Clausen (38:06.638)
hands and eyes and feet and people to help them collect data and information. So what this GenOcean campaign does is provide access to a large range of citizen science initiatives where people can get involved and there are more and more coming on every week. So I think as an individual, that is a really great way to get involved.
Clark Marchese
That sounds incredible. I'm gonna definitely include a link to that in the description. And my next question is sort of an open mic moment for you. Is there anything that we didn't talk about today that that we'd be kicking ourselves if we forgot to make space for or we forgot to mention?
Alison Clausen
Ithink we've been very comprehensive. I really would encourage everyone to, you know, it's so easy when we hear the, you know, we read articles in the press or we hear about, you know, the climate crisis or the biodiversity crisis. I don't know, I think for a lot of people, your mind automatically thinks terrestrially and forests and because that's where we are, that's where we live, right? But I just think we need to constantly and very deliberately continue to remind ourselves that the ocean is 70 % of the planet, right? I mean, and it has such a huge and mostly no effect on so much of what we do every day. So we all need to be advocates for not only protecting the ocean, but for ensuring that we as responsible citizens are finding as much information as possible to base our decisions on, but also pushing our local governments, our state governments, our national governments to not forget about the ocean and ocean science when they're making policy and when they're making decisions. And we certainly can't do it alone. So we need to just encourage people to learn more about the ocean decade and think about it and talk about it in their professional learning networks and contribute to that overall global movement of making sure that the ocean remains central in our thinking when we're making decisions about the future.
Clark Marchese (39:49.694)
I think that is a wonderful note to end on. My last question is where can people find you and follow your work?
Alison Clausen
So the best thing is through the Ocean Decade website, which I'm sure you'll link up to, and we have a great team called the Decade Coordination Unit based all around the world. And so you'll find contacts, details there. can follow us on social media as well. We try and keep very, very active on social media. But yeah, we love engaging with people, so do reach out. And then apart from the of the central coordination hub, we have all these different programs and activities going on, which again, you'll find on the website. So for example, if you're an early career ocean professional, get in touch with the ECOP program. They have a whole range of different opportunities and other programs have different things going on. So It's really worthwhile taking some time to browse the website and see what may be best of interest.
Clark Marchese
Okay, perfect. I'll put links to all of these and also everything else that we discussed today in the show notes. And this is the part where I say thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. Thank you so much for helping us understand more about the ocean decade. And most importantly, thank you for all of the work that you have been doing in this space.
Alison Clausen (40:51.224)
Thank you very much for having me. It's been very fun.
Clark Marchese (41:02.648)
Alright, let's give another great big thank you again to Alison Claussen and also a big thank you to The Ocean Decade for endorsing this podcast as an official project for our work in advancing ocean awareness. And I'm curious to hear from you listeners. Did you like this policy focused episode? Most of our episodes, as I said, will always be science heavy, but I do love to throw these in once in a while. Additionally,
I will put the Ocean Decade Action items in the episode description that lists their scientific priorities. And if there's anything on that list that you'd be curious to learn more about, I can find a scientist to tell us all about it. I'd always love to hear your ideas for episodes or also just what you think about the show. You can make a comment on the Spotify app directly or you can write us a written review on Apple Podcasts telling us what you'd like to learn about next. And as always, a five-star rating will help us reach more people and share this ocean science even further.
So while you're there, tapping that button is really appreciated. And that's about all for today. Next week we are back to the science and I won't give any spoilers away, but the topic of the episode is something you will have seen in Finding Nemo and also something that you might have lot of curiosities about. So that's all I'm going to say and I'll see you here next week.
Clark Marchese (42:19.404)
You have been listening to Oceanography. Just a reminder to anyone who is interested in helping us reach more people, share scientific research like this, and to continue making our shows, you can join us on Patreon for further resources. That or a five-star rating or written review wherever you're listening are the easiest and most effective ways to help us out. Oceanography is a Pine Forest Media production. You can find more information about this podcast and this week's guest in the episode description.
Cover art for the show was done by Jomero Eming and the music you're listening to was composed by Nila Ruiz. The show was hosted and edited by me, Clark Marchese, and it was produced by myself, Madison Linton, and Francesca DeNisco. You can find more information about Pine Forest Media and our science podcasts at pineforestpods.com or follow us on social media at Pine Forest Media. That's all I have for you today, and thank you so much for listening.
