During the Sustainable Ocean Summit (SOS) held in Rotterdam 30 November to 2 December, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the World Ocean Council (WOC) signed a Partnership Agreement to increase WOC’s ability to engage the ocean business community in key intergovernmental bodies and processes on ocean science and planning and regulations key to ocean industry activities.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) IOC, the only specialised marine science organisation within the UN system, works to promote international cooperation and coordinate programs in research, services and capacity-building to increase education on nature and resources of the ocean to improve management and sustainable development.
WOC’s Smart Ocean-Smart Industries (SO-SI) program aims to expand the role of ocean industries by collecting and sharing oceanographic information. The program develops initiatives to help engage vessels, platforms, and other infrastructure to host or demonstrate their contribution to sustainable development and increasing scientific knowledge of the ocean. It is hoped that this Partnership Agreement will advance the SO-SI program.
Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of the IOC, commented: “We count on WOC in reaching out to the ocean industry and engaging its huge potential into science-based, profitable but sustainable use of the ocean ecosystems and resources. With the help of the private sector we hope to make ocean observations more sustainable and resourceful and to develop innovative solutions for protection and restoration of ocean ecosystems.”
Peter Hinchliffe, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), a WOC Member, added: “The WOC is uniquely able to foster and facilitate collaboration between the diverse global ocean business community and the international ocean science community. We especially look forward to progress with the WOC ‘Smart Ocean-Smart Industries’ program, which seeks to advance the collection of data from ‘ships and platforms of opportunity’ in support of safe and sustainable ocean industry operations.”
The Agreement was signed by IOC Executive Secretary, Vladimir Ryabinin, and WOC CEO, Paul Holthus, at the opening session of the SOS.
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