Barcelona confirms its leadership role in the global blue economy sector. Unesco has chosen the Catalan capital to host the global office dedicated to the sustainable ocean economy, which will be the only collaborative center of the Ocean Decade.
The headquarters that Barcelona will host aims to be a global thought center in this field, and will depend on the Barcelona Capital Nàutica Foundation. From its facilities in Moll de Llevant, the center will act as a global think tank on the blue economy at least until 2030, when the Ocean Decade ends. This was announced by the mayor, Jaume Collboni, along with the global coordinator of the Ocean Decade and Unesco regional coordinator, Julian Barbieri.
In this scenario, the center aims to constitute the largest global repository of projects applicable to the economic development of the oceans, as well as to build an international public-private network focused on this area. In addition, it sets itself the goal of articulating an impact investment fund in the blue economy.
And it is that the oceans "are the great allies" to combat the climate emergency, according to Collboni, who celebrated that Barcelona is reaping the fruits sown through initiatives such as the Ocean Decade Conference, which brought together 1,500 people last year in the city.
The City Council leads the project in collaboration with the Port of Barcelona and the Generalitat, together with scientific partners such as the Spanish National Research Council, through its Institute of Marine Sciences, and BlueNetCat, the Maritime R&D&I network of Catalonia, with the support of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
Global vision with local impact
Although the center is born with a global vision, Collboni has highlighted that it also aims to generate "a lot of local impact." In this sense, the mayor took the opportunity to announce the creation of a working group to promote measures to "preserve and regenerate" the Barcelona coastline, with the aim that 30% of Barcelona's coastline will be marine space.
Through these initiatives, the blue economy continues to gain weight in Barcelona and its surroundings. So much so that the sector represents 4.3% of the city's GDP and 1.4% of its employment, with activities ranging from logistics to port activity, fishing, marine biotechnology, tourism, and the nautical sector, among many others.
Beyond the city, the sector represents a business volume of 15,000 million euros in Catalonia —3.3% of the total— and a gross added value of 3,800 million euros, 1.7% of the total. In addition, the sector employs close to 3% of Catalan workers, with a total of 104,000 professionals.