Concerned youths worldwide today (7 June) delivered a policy vision for policy-makers to address the declining state of the world’s ocean.
A carbon neutral economy, preserving biodiversity, achieving sustainable seafood production, and reforming ocean governance are the four fundamental pillars supporting policy recommendations debuted in the Global Blue New Deal, an ocean policy framework built around crowd-sourced youth priorities.
“Healthy oceans are essential to human survival and well-being, and environmental health must be a global priority as we recover from the pandemic and build a sustainable blue economy,” says Mark Haver, Chair of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance’s Youth Policy Advisory Council.
He and 14 fellow Young Ocean Leaders on the Council spent a year gathering and synthesizing more than 100 survey responses in five languages from the SOA global youth community in 38 countries on how to end the cycle of ocean decline.
“Today’s oceans are overfished, rife with plastic, and overexploited for minerals, fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources. We need to end this cycle of decline and generational injustice that threatens us all.”
Today, June 7, 2021, is the first step of integrating public comment into the Global Blue New Deal. Our event, “Defining The Blue New Deal: A Youth Led Workshop For The Future of Our Ocean,” seeks to collect feedback on our framework from youth and stakeholders ahead of larger public comment periods.
Starting in July, our public comment period seeks to engage the UN Major Group for Youth and Children, UN Ocean Decade affiliates, the NGO sector, more youth, and other ocean stakeholders in gathering input ahead of our official launch of the final Global Blue New Deal before COP26.
The Global Blue New Deal consists of four pillars. Each pillar has sub-pillars with specific ocean policy solutions.
Background
Young Ocean Leaders, all under 35 years of age, are part of SOA’s global community of youth, entrepreneurs, and experts from 165 countries and territories — the world’s largest youth-led network of ocean allies working to solve the greatest challenges facing our oceans.
“Youth are the greatest stakeholders in the future health of the ocean environment,” says Marina Porto of Brazil, Co-Chair of the Youth Policy Advisory Council. “They need to be directly involved in building a sustainable blue economy that ensures the health of the ocean ecosystem while providing economic opportunities.”
The United Nations has recognized the increasingly degraded state of our ocean and declared 2021-2030 a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which officially launched June 1.
The UN has called on global ocean stakeholders to develop and support a common framework to deliver “the ocean we need for the future we want”.
The ocean provides an estimated USD $3 to $6 trillion in ecosystem services, jobs, and cultural services. Fisheries and aquaculture alone contribute USD$100 billion per year and 250+ million jobs.
“We see this as our opportunity to rewrite the long history of an increasingly compromised ocean,” concluded Mark Haver. “Each generation has inherited an increasingly degraded ocean environment with the poorest, most vulnerable communities feeling the impacts the most severely.”