Barcelona leads the global debate to preserve the oceans

After suffering two torrid summers and now facing a drought, society is increasingly aware of what climate change means and how it threatens life in a city like Barcelona, with little green space and full of asphalt, traffic, and polluted air. Against this backdrop, the city this week leads the global debate on another of the many victims of climate change, the oceans, the older siblings of the neighboring Mediterranean Sea, which also suffers the consequences of rising temperatures and increasingly frequent storms. Barcelona hosts the Ocean Decade Conference 2024, a global forum that brings together governments, universities, businesses, NGOs, and civil society from different countries. The initiative, promoted by the United Nations (UN), aims to reverse the deterioration of the oceans and find solutions for their preservation.

From this Wednesday until Friday, the ocean community gathers at the Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB). An attendance of 1,500 people and the participation of more than 40 international speakers are expected. The organizers report that the event has generated great international interest, with more than 5,000 requests to attend.

Under the title, The science we need for the ocean we want, the conference will be structured into four thematic sessions based on the 10 challenges of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), also known as the Ocean Decade. Three years after its creation, the event stops in Barcelona to present its first results. The topics to be heard at the CCIB will be marine pollution, biodiversity protection, the development of an ocean economy, the connection with climate, sustainable food, emergency alert systems, and ocean literacy.

At the closing ceremony, the roadmap planned until 2030 will be presented. Likewise, oral presentations on scientific solutions for the oceans will be scheduled at the convention center to complement the main sessions, and a new foundation is expected to be created to strengthen the sustainable management of the oceans.

Among the speakers are the President of Cape Verde, José María Neves; the President of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, the Prince of Monaco, Alberto II, the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown, and the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Ocean, Peter Thomson. Representatives from the governments of Norway, Grenada, China, and Indonesia, as well as European institutions, are also expected to participate.

On behalf of the hosts, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, will attend. With the America's Cup on the horizon, the CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand, Grant Dalton, is scheduled to speak in a session on the necessary conditions for ocean success.

The conference represents the culmination of a week of events that have spread throughout the city since Monday. A hundred activities have been scheduled, many of which are open to the public, with debates, presentations, exhibitions, workshops, dialogues, and film screenings. They have been distributed across different venues, such as Port Vell, Tech Barcelona, Port Olímpic, the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), the Filmoteca, and the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona.