We are happy to inform you that on 5 December 2017 the UN General Assembly proclaimed a new global initiative, the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to gather ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework that will ensure ocean science can fully support countries in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 14 on the ocean.

This new decade-long push to better understand the global ocean will be led by UNESCO-IOC and will begin on 1 January 2021, within existing structures and available resources, "and calls upon the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission to prepare an implementation plan for the Decade in consultation with Member States, specialized agencies, funds, programmes and bodies of the United Nations, as well as other intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and relevant stakeholders." The resolution document stresses the importance of increasing the scientific understanding of the oceans-atmosphere interface, and explicitly encourages participation in ocean observing programmes and geographic information systems, such as the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).

As the goal of proclaiming the Decade is to ensure greater coordination of research, IOCCP is very much looking forward to becoming part of this initiative through fulfilling its mission to promote the development of a global network of ocean carbon and biogeochemistry observations.

Watch the message from UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay in which she explains clearly the needs and the opportunities ahead.

Why a Decade of Ocean Science?

While all major international assessments find that much of the ocean is now seriously degraded, there is an increasingly urgent need to find scientific solutions that allow us to understand the changes taking place in our ocean, and to reverse the declining health of our planet's largest ecosystem.

The UN Decade of Ocean Science seeks to transform and bolster the way in which the scientific community, governments, civil society, and the UN System coordinate their actions toward "conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development" – as stated in Objective 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Decade will act to fill major gaps in our knowledge of the ocean and ability to sustainable manage its resources:

• There is no internationally-agreed methodology for estimating the economic value of services the ocean provides to humankind;
• Science cannot yet meaningfully evaluate the cumulative impacts of climate change, marine pollution and other anthropogenic stresses on the health of the ocean ecosystem;
• For 99% of habitable marine areas, we lack the basic biodiversity knowledge we require for effective management;
• Only 5% of the ocean floor has been mapped and only 1% of this mapped area has been gridded at high resolution;
• 103 million square miles of the deep sea exist in perpetual darkness and up to a million marine species could still be unknown to science;
• Only 3 humans have explored the deepest known point of the ocean.

What is hoped to be achieved through the Decade?

The most important legacies of the UN Decade of Ocean Science will be a new generation of ocean scientists and technicians, with the establishment of new research networks, and a new generation of enhanced observational systems, facilities and infrastructure that will help countries achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Decade will also raise unprecedented levels of interest and participation from youth, the general public, and decision-makers around the globe.

Through wide consultations with all relevant stakeholders, the Decade's preparatory process will propose specific objectives and deliverables to be achieved by 2030. In calling for the Decade at the UN General Assembly and other international fora, the IOC has proposed some preliminary objectives:

• Enhancing sustainable use of ocean and marine resources including a focus on: making an inventory of ocean resources and ecosystem services; understanding and quantifying biogeographical zones and the potential role of marine protected areas;
• Expanding use of knowledge about the ocean conditions including data management, data gathering, modeling, forecasting ocean food productivity and evaluating its capacity to meet growing demands;
• Supporting the development of the ocean economy including analyses of economic and social benefits from the sustainable use of marine resources and science-based management;
• Sustainable management of coastal ecosystems including ecosystem resilience and marine spatial planning to minimize impacts of sea-level rise, extreme weather events, flooding and erosion, improvements of baselines on environmental conditions and public perceptions;Increasing scientific knowledge about the impacts of cumulative interacting stressors such as warming, acidification and habitat destruction;
• Achieving integrated observations and data sharing including the use of satellites, fixed and moving observing platforms, all feeding into common data management and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).