The video records a closing panel of the Expo 2020 World Majlis titled “Deep Blue the Other Final Frontier,” where a diverse group of speakers discuss the urgent need to protect the oceans. The conversation begins with a call for international frameworks combined with local investment and capacity‑building to address fisheries, plastic pollution, and other marine challenges. Melania emphasizes personal emotional connection to coral reefs as a catalyst for protection, urging people to experience healthy reefs firsthand. Kathleen highlights the importance of engaging a broad range of stakeholders—including fishermen, Indigenous peoples, youth, and the general public—through ground‑up programs and media such as documentaries. The panel then presents a promotional video about the upcoming United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon (June 2022), underscoring its role in advancing Sustainable Development Goal 14, fostering a new blue‑economy paradigm, and encouraging voluntary commitments from member states. Speakers stress the ocean’s critical climate‑regulating functions, the threats of acidification, warming, de‑oxygenation, and biodiversity loss, and the necessity of restoring blue‑carbon habitats. The discussion concludes with a call to action: register for the UN conference, use the virtual Expo 2020 website for resources, and recognize the ocean’s spiritual, economic, and social value for current and future generations.
Chapters
And that is really key. And I think in terms of dealing with some of the issues around fisheries and dealing with issues around plastics or whatever else, you need that international framework, but then you need to have that investment and that capacity to ensure that local national solutions can then operationalise it.
We're in the last 7 or 8 minutes here. Melania, I wanted to give you the final bullet, um, voice on this. If you talk I have 2 daughters who are 16 and 19, and they kind of accuse— you're a baby boomer, right? You know, that's what happens. They accuse the baby boomers of being pretty lazy, pretty slow to respond as a part of the human race here, that we're not living up to the challenges, got too comfortable, we're too dependent on making money, didn't have to deal with conflict. Well, how do you get that sense of urgency and the focus on the oceans? That is needed at this stage and to shake things up.
Ah, that's a difficult question. I'm carrying the weight of closing. So I, I would invite everyone, if they can, to go visit a coral reef and to submerge their head underwater and listen, like you were saying, listen to what alive healthy coral reef sounds like. We have to rebuild that connection to loving these ecosystems so that we can protect them. I don't think you can protect something that you don't love. So you have to find that personal connection first to being marveled and being amazed by the things that we still have and think about what we can still save, not about what we can lose. And then it connects to the other things that you love, your daughters, your grandchildren, it's going to connect right away. So, so I think if, if we have gotten too compliant— uh, too complacent, sorry, too complacent, uh, and too slow, it is because maybe we have taken for granted the things that we love. And in oceanography, we always say that, uh, rising tide lifts up the boat, all the boats. And, and I think that tide is becoming dignity and protecting the dignity of future generations, the dignity of Aboriginal and Indigenous communities, of developing countries, of women. Once we start lifting all of those other boats and we start really like taking advantage of all the talent that is, you know, unlocked in there, so I think that that will start moving things faster, not just taking advantage of the talent and the privilege of a few.
Yeah, do we take the ocean for granted, do you think, Kathleen?
I, I think we do it I don't think I do, and I don't think maybe the people here don't. But I, I think, I mean, I've spent time with many different people on the ocean, sailors to fishermen, and I would say I think the fishermen are more connected to the ocean than, say, a sailor. I've seen people throwing cigarette butts and having no concept of there's a whole world living out there, you know. So maybe it, in our roles, you know, sort of as leaders, we need to inspire people more. We need to, you know, the Netflix, uh, documentary that was extremely popular, we, we need to somehow engage more. And maybe at these UN conferences, we need to have, um, more people's areas where people can contribute, um, indigenous groups, you know. And of course, this is money as well. Not everyone can fly to a coral reef, you know. Some of the people in the most degraded sites will— they're just thinking about how to feed themselves. So we need to somehow engage. I'm a ground-up person. I will say a lot of the programs I've developed have been sitting on the location with a few people from different, different, you know, consultants and tourism people, Indigenous people. I really believe We need to be able to have conversations like this. In fact, more than TED Talks, these sorts of conversations, but with diverse, cross-functional, cross-level discussions. And I think we need to do this more.
Well, this has been a fantastic forum because of the diversity on the panel, and I appreciate the questions from the audience. We wanted to run a video here looking forward to the UN conference that you'll be hosting. We'll get a taste, and then I'll get you to say, you know, what your aspirations are for that meeting. Listen to the and take a look at the video now. Thank you.
Salvar o oceano, preservar o futuro. Este é o mote de um encontro decisivo para o futuro da humanidade. Os atuais problemas do oceano vão muito para além da sobrepesca ou da poluição. O oceano global sofre de acidificação. Aumento da temperatura média, desoxigenação e perda de biodiversidade. Mas uma nova era para o oceano pode começar em Lisboa. Em junho de 2022, a capital portuguesa recebe a Conferência dos Oceanos das Nações Unidas. Todos os Estados são convidados a participar. Governos, empresas, organizações não governamentais e universidades vão dialogar sobre melhores políticas para uma governação sustentável do oceano. Há décadas que Portugal tem um papel fundamental na diplomacia do oceano. Hoje, mais do que nunca, o país está disposto a assumir assumir responsabilidades na construção de um novo paradigma de gestão baseado no conhecimento científico e no equilíbrio ambiental, social e económico. Organizada em conjunto com o Quénia, a Conferência dos Oceanos das Nações Unidas vai definir ações para implementar o Objetivo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável 14. Proteger a vida marinha. O tempo urge para concretizar este e os outros 16 objetivos da Agenda 2030 da ONU. A recuperação da pandemia deve orientar-nos para uma relação mais equilibrada com a natureza.
O oceano é fundamental na regulação do clima, não só pela retenção dos gases de estufa como pela redistribuição do calor a nível global. Tal como ficou bem reconhecido na última Cimeira Climática, a COP26, o papel do oceano é crítico no combate aos eventos extremos que têm vindo a afetar a humanidade.
Para a pesca continuar a ser uma importante fonte de proteína alimentar, tem de ser encontrado um novo ponto de equilíbrio.
Sabemos desde já que devemos olhar para o mar com outros olhos, como fonte de recursos de forma sustentável. A aposta num oceano saudável é um investimento com retorno para o ambiente, para a economia e para toda a sociedade.
Uma nova economia azul pode revolucionar os muitos usos do oceano: nas rotas comerciais, na energia renovável, nas substâncias para fármacos, nas telecomunicações, e muito mais.
O mar é muito mais do que um recurso, é fonte de bem-estar espiritual, é palco de esporte, cenário de lazer. No oceano vamos ser mais felizes.
A humanidade é chamada a encontrar novas soluções, a alertar consciências e alterar comportamentos, a reforçar a mensagem de que só juntos podemos salvar o oceano.
A saúde dos oceanos está nas nossas mãos, em todos os pontos do globo. Cada um pode fazer a diferença. É urgente fazer as escolhas certas, agir, proteger, conservar e garantir um futuro melhor para as gerações de amanhã.
Conferência dos Oceanos das Nações Unidas. O futuro do oceano decide-se em Lisboa.
Very nice. Give a round of applause for the video. I guess I don't really want to attend a conference if I'm going to get lost for 2 weeks afterwards, right? It's interesting you brought up environmental, social, and economic balance as a theme. Do you think you can drive that home for the conference? We only have a minute for your final remarks.
Okay, thank you very much. Just to tell that all these registrations happen in the site of the United Nations. Okay, that's where you have to look. And what we hope is that we strengthen the voluntary because they are voluntary compromises of the member states of the United Nations.
And we know that we are behind behind behind accomplishment of the. Targets that were defined on SDG 14. And it is important that we improve. So the big, the big challenge is to bring the countries on the understanding that the voluntary compromises are important. This is not a COP, so the compromises have to be voluntary. And that we don't want an ocean to be kept for observation, and we want our ocean that is returning to its health and can be productive for the society and for our economies. I would like to remember that the first and second sustainable level of concern are still hunger and poverty, and the ocean can contribute food and resources, but it has to return to the ocean. And the last remark, I would like to refer that we are on the decade of oceans, right, for sustainable development, but at the same time we are on the decade of ecosystems restoration that we refer here today. And if we don't restore some of the important ones like the blue carbon sink habitats, we will fail. On these. Thank you.
Thank you very much for that. For those who want additional information, those watching from afar, you can go to the virtualexpo2020.com website. That's the virtualexpo2020.com website. We have another 2 more sessions when it comes to water that I'm chairing over the next 2 evenings at the same time here in Dubai. I really appreciate the organizers pulling together such a Solid group of individuals, which is fantastic. And we look forward to your questions and your feedback, even online to the website. Use it as a resource.
