One Ocean Summit

Description

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Context: France hosted the 'One Planet' Summit dedicated to the Ocean, called the One Ocean Summit.

Key details of Summit:

Aims/ Goal:
- to mobilize the international community and take concrete action to reduce adverse effects on the ocean, raising its level of ambition on maritime issues.
- to raise the collective level of ambition of the international community on marine issues and to translate shared responsibility to the ocean into tangible commitments.
It focused on the protection of marine ecosystems and sustainable fisheries, the fight against pollution (especially plastic), climate change, and ocean governance.
It was held in the context of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the support of the United Nations.
It brought together determined group of Heads of State and Government, leaders of multilateral institutions, business leaders and civil society policymakers to take ambitious commitments.
Initiatives taken for: marine ecosystem protection and sustainable fisheries, fight plastic pollution, climate change, improved governance of the oceans.

Why ocean matters?

Ocean covers more than 70% of the surface of our planet, yet often remains on the sidelines of international events.
Environmental role: Ocean is a regulator of major environmental balances and climate, provider of resources, an important enabler of trade, and an essential link between countries and human communities.
Threats to ocean: climate change, pollution or the overexploitation of marine resources.

Key outcomes:

UNESCO: It has announced that at least 80% of the seabed will be mapped by 2030, compared to 20% currently, in collaboration with other UN bodies and the private sector. UNESCO is the UN agency in charge of ocean sciences.
Coalition on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ): This initiative underlines the EU's role as the leading actor on global marine conservation.
Zero-tolerance towards illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is EU's ambitious policy for sustainable management of marine resources.
For addressing plastic pollution: The EU has adopted two main priorities: decreasing plastic pollution and accelerating the transition to a circular economy.
Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”: It aims to ensure that the ocean plays a central role in meeting the 2030 targets of the European Green Deal. It is aimed at developing and testing solutions in support of protecting 30% of the EU's sea area, restoring marine and waterway ecosystems, reducing plastic litter at sea, nutrient losses and use of chemical pesticides by 50%, and making the blue economy climate-neutral and circular.
European Digital Twin Ocean: digital ocean platform to place the EU as a digital champion for the ocean.
EU4Ocean coalition: to enhance ocean literacy by education and investing in research.