For next year’s Our Ocean Conference in Halifax, Canada has identified four priority themes, including the blue economy and ocean-dependent communities, and Indigenous and community leadership in ocean protection.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Canada will host the world’s premier ocean action conference for the first time next year.
The Our Ocean Conference will take place in Halifax in 2027, federal Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson announced Monday on World Ocean Day.
“The health of the ocean, which is conservation and sustainability, is also linked to the reality of our fisheries – which are linked to who we are as a country, to the socioeconomic reality of our coastlines and our Indigenous communities,” says Ms. Thompson, the MP for St. John’s East. “We can do both, and we must do both.”
Launched in 2014 by then-U.S. secretary of state John Kerry and predating the United Nations Ocean Conference, the Our Ocean Conference is a voluntary commitments forum – a departure from the slow grind of negotiated treaties toward faster, more flexible action on ocean challenges.
“It was set up so that individual commitments could be made that could move a lot faster than the multilateral system,” says Tom Pickerell, director of the World Resources Institute ocean program and head of the conference’s Secretariat. “This has moved from a conservation-led convening in the early days to very much focusing on a sustainable ocean economy.”
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The conference has generated more than 2,900 commitments worth more than $228-billion, with about 80 per cent completed or under way. Governments have driven the most action, accounting for 61 per cent of commitments and 17 of 29 pledges exceeding $1-billion – among them Norway’s $1-billion climate adaptation pledge and Japan’s $3-billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund for coastal and marine conservation.
Canada has pledged a total of $1.06-billion, including an $800-million investment in Indigenous-led conservation initiatives in 2022 and a $162-million commitment to support resilient coastal communities and small island developing states in 2018 – both of which are in progress. It also pledged a $100-million Ocean Plastics Charter commitment to ensure plastics are designed for recycling, which was completed in 2022.
“The funding gap required to achieve a sustainable ocean economy is potentially US$550-billion – and that can’t come from just government,” said Mr. Pickerell, adding that research suggests ocean investments yield roughly five-to-one returns, particularly across offshore wind, decarbonization of international shipping, and aquaculture and fisheries.
For the conference’s twelfth edition in Halifax, Canada has identified four priority themes: the blue economy and ocean-dependent communities; Indigenous and community leadership in ocean protection; ocean observation and climate services; and sustainability in the high seas.
“This is a huge opportunity for Canada to demonstrate that it’s very serious about a sustainable ocean – that includes protected areas, sustainable industries, and Indigenous rights and advancing conservation in the Arctic,” says Susanna Fuller, vice-president of conservation and projects at non-profit Oceans North. “There are certainly expectations on host countries to meet their commitments.”
The country’s $3.8-billion nature strategy projects marine protection reaching 28 per cent of Canada’s waters by 2030 – close to, but not fully meeting, the 30 per cent by 2030 target adopted under the Global Biodiversity Framework. Last month, Canada established the first of up to 10 new national marine conservation areas committed under the strategy. On April 30, Ms. Thompson tabled the High Seas Treaty in Parliament, a step toward ratification of the accord governing biodiversity in international waters.
Currently, only about 8.4 per cent of the global ocean is protected. An estimated 42 per cent of implemented marine protected areas globally were announced at Our Ocean Conferences.
“We’re not quite there in our 30 by 30 commitments – I think it’s an opportunity to fill the gap in area-based protection, and a great way to use the next year as a real leverage point on getting things done,” says Dr. Fuller.
Halifax, home to a cluster of ocean science institutions, gives the conference a natural anchor, says Shannon Miedema, the Liberal MP for the city.
“We are Canada’s ocean supercluster – we have strength in offshore wind research, renewable energy, carbon sequestration, marine conservation, and our fisheries and coastal communities.”
Next year’s conference will follow the 11th conference, set for June 16 to 18 in Mombasa, Kenya – the first time the conference has been held on the African continent. Previous hosts have ranged from small island states such as Palau to major economies including the U.S., Chile, Indonesia, Norway and the EU.
“We haven’t always done what we needed to do, but we have the opportunity now to ensure that we put everything we can towards this,” says Ms. Thompson.