In this month’s Ocean Brief, I share my reflections on UNOC and the One Ocean Science Congress - something I've been meaning to do since June.
Yes, really, I’ve been meaning to write this since June.
After spending two weeks immersed in the One Ocean Science Congress and the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice, France, I expected to come home energised, hopeful, and ready to ride a wave of momentum. I expected clarity. What I felt instead was... a bit meh.
That’s not easy to admit, and I felt bad about talking about it. I still do. I still feel like I should be oh so excited about UNOC in particular.
At the grand old age of 28, I went back to school with the dream of becoming a marine scientist because I wanted to make a difference. When I discovered my love for science communication, it was with the same goal in mind: to help move knowledge into action, to help create change. I’m lucky to work in both worlds now - research and science communication.
But in Nice, I found myself circling the same question… What are we actually moving?
The mood of the conference
While I was at the two conferences, I asked participants one not-so-simple question: In one word, how do you feel about the future of the ocean today?
Around 250 people shared their word with me. The top three words
Hopeful
Overwhelmed
Concerned
Hopeful may have been the most common word, but such positive sentiments were far from the norm. 72% of respondents shared what we could call negative moods, using words like "anxious," "frightened," "stressed," and "devastated." 12% of the respondents shared neutral or mixed feelings, with words like "guarded" and "uncertain." That leaves just 16% of respondents sharing positive feelings.
There was no clear trend over time, no surge in optimism or pessimism as the days went on. I didn't collect any demographic information, but I didn't spot any trends with age or gender.
When people did explain their word choices, a pattern emerged. Those who said hopeful, optimistic, or motivated often added “because we have to be.” Because giving up isn’t an option. Because there is always a chance.
For those who said negative words like concerned or frightened, they often pointed out the lack of action over the years and the lack of action now. Nobody who expressed a negative emotion said they were ready to give up.
Moving forward… or not
As I sat through plenary sessions, though speeches delivered by "very important people," I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were walking familiar paths, talking about the same threats, the same needs, that we have been for years, decades in many cases. The science on many of these issues has improved. We now know more about them - their direct impacts, indirect impacts, cumulative impacts, cascading effects, unintended consequences and more - than ever before.
Sharing what we have learned, highlighting what we know we don't know, is very important, but so too is moving the dial. So why aren't we moving it?
Some of the "very important people" were on hand to give us a glimpse into that, with sentiments like:
We want to take action. Please give us your research
We need you to do the science so we can take action
We want to make good decisions, but we need your research and evidence-based recommendations
My inner voice was screaming to these people that the research community has been talking about these issues, waving the warning flags, looking for solutions, for years, for decades.
My outer voice was far too shy to say anything.
I want to talk more about this in my Communications Brief newsletter, but here are a few points:
Yes - the research community hasn't always been great at engaging those outside the research community, and particularly with policy/decision-makers
Yes - the community is getting better, but there is a long way to go
It's not just on the research community to engage with policy/decision-makers - they need to actively engage too
We need to support outreach and engagement more than we are to enable knowledge exchange, to work with policy/decision-makers, and communities, for that matter
Even the most effective communications plan delivered perfectly doesn't mean that the research will have much sway
Sometimes it isn’t a lack of knowledge that is why we aren’t doing things more sustainably, but that those who need to change simply don’t want to.
Not all talk?
This isn't to say that we didn't see any progress at UNOC. On paper, at least, plenty happened.
We saw €8.7 billion in Pledges made on all sorts of ocean actions
800 new voluntary commitments were made under the Nice Ocean Action Plan and Declaration
96 countries endorsed the “Nice Wake-Up Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty”
And more
But most of these weren’t binding. Some were restatements. And in the background, damaging activities continue, vague political outcomes are awash, and policy ratifications are still slow to come despite their urgency.
Take the BBNJ Treaty (formally, the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction).
Also known as the High Seas Treaty, BBNJ is a legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in parts of the ocean and seabed that lie outside any country's jurisdiction (their Exclusive Economic Zones). It's a hugely ambitious treaty that, if executed properly, could result in real, positive change for the ocean and those who rely on it (that's all of us, by the way). It won't solve all the issues alone, but it is considered to be a pretty big step.
The BBNJ Treaty falls under something called UNCLOS - the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Some 169 sovereign states (e.g., countries/nation states) and the European Union are parties to UNCLOS. For the BBNJ to be implemented, 60 parties need to ratify the treaty.
Before UNOC, 116 parties had signed to say they would ratify the treaty, with 31 parties actually ratifying the Treaty. By the end of UNOC, there were 136 signatures, and 19 more parties ratified the Treaty.
This is great progress! But what about the others? Why the inertia in ratifying? What are we (they) waiting for? If not now, if not at UNOC, when?
That's a topic for another newsletter.
But wait - there is change!
Earlier in this newsletter, I asked why we aren't moving the dial towards solving some of the challenges we face.
While the large-scale, international actions needed seem to be floundering, talks at One Ocean Science and events at UNOC spotlighted something else - smaller actions, local-level progress, research, and learning. The grassroots projects, local conservation efforts, citizen science platforms, early-career researchers carving out new paths, and seasoned professionals drawing on years of experience, learning, and perspectives.
These smaller-scale efforts and the research behind them are happening everywhere without the pomp that those larger-scale international actions have.
These smaller-scale actions and research are no less important than international frameworks or global declarations. And they’re not more important either. We need both. The global and the local. The ambitious and the incremental. The polished and the imperfect.
Where I found most hope was not in the plenary halls, but in the people doing the work, testing ideas, failing sometimes, and still trying again.
One of the most powerful parts of conferences like these is the chance to meet so many different people. They bring together individuals working on vastly different challenges, grounded in equally diverse cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. The conversations, shared frustrations, and sparks of collaboration were the most meaningful part for me - and, from what I heard, for many others too.
Yes, I left Nice feeling meh, but that meh is leaning more towards optimism than pessimism. Change is not inevitable, but it is possible - especially when we collaborate and support each other.