Description and rationale

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a global vision that provides the framework for the actions needed to tackle the major challenges of mankind, including Climate Change (SDG-13) and Ocean Life sustainability (SDG-14). This international Agenda is set in a context of a climate emergency and global environmental change. There is an urgent need to provide the data, information and knowledge to society to monitor, understand and mitigate against these changes, and to empower citizens to understand, feel connected, and to change their behavior and transform their lifestyles towards sustainable living. The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) is the mechanism for inter- and multidisciplinary studies of the ocean that provides the knowledge to increase the awareness about the changes, and to build the capacity to realize effective adaptation to the changes.

During the panel we will discuss the climate/ocean related programs and their elements that are generating knowledge, which we have divided into three levels: global, regional and local. We will also discuss the level of awareness of ocean and climate issues among global citizens/professionals/policy makers, etc..
Through the panel we will provide the context relating to the level of the available climate and ocean knowledge as well as examples of best practices in climate and ocean approaches to share properly tailored knowledge.

Objectives
Sound scientific understanding of climate and ocean processes, their interactions and observed rapid changes is fundamental for fostering sustainable development. Climate and ocean studies and the knowledge created in association are crucial for predictions of the consequences of climate change, which are then necessary to design appropriate mitigation and adaptation actions. However, there is still an obvious gap between research and society resulting from a number of different factors.
A group of international professionals will share their experience in the above areas of global issues and discuss lessons learnt from their own perspective as well as future challenges.

Audience
We welcome all, professionals, decision makers, communicators and general public.

Link to the Facebook event

The Panel team
1. Tymon Zielinski (IO PAN) – panel moderator.
2. Marcin Wichorowski (IO PAN).
3. Taco de Bruin (IODE).
4. Pawel Maczka (Storware).
5. Marta Gallas (Association of Sea Cities and Municipalities).