Climate Change, Security, and Intersectionality at the 2024 UN Ocean Decade Conference

Apr 18, 2024 | Marisa O. Ensor

The UN Ocean Decade Conference was held in the coastal city of Barcelona, Spain, from April 10 to 12, under the theme: “Delivering the Science We Need for the Ocean We Want.” The three-day conference convened world leaders, academia, the private sector, and civil society. It was part of the larger Ocean Decade Week, which ran from April 8 to 12 and featured more than 120 satellite events alongside the official program. An important milestone on UNESCO’s Vision 2030, the Conference revolved around 10 “Ocean Decade Challenges.” These included such critical issues as climate change, food security, sustainable management of biodiversity, sustainable blue economy, pollution, and natural hazards, Climate change – number 5 of the 10 Decade Challenges – was recognized as a cross-cutting issue that impacts all other sectors and has critical implications for human and global security. Questions of gender, generation, intersectional equity, traditional knowledge systems and Indigenous rights were also discussed in multiple presentations (including my own on climate adaptation in SIDS – Small Island Developing States, aka Large Ocean States), and highlighted in Challenge 10: “Changing Humanity’s Relationship with the Ocean.”

The UN Ocean Decade and Climate Change

The United Nations published its First World Ocean Assessment (WOA I) in 2017. This report’s overarching conclusion was that humanity is running out of time to start managing the ocean sustainably. Worldwide, conflicts over marine environments are growing in frequency and intensity. Climate change coupled with the increasing unsustainable industrialization of the marine environment have been identified as the primary causes. Human activity has already raised the average global temperature approximately 1°C above pre-industrial levels. Scientific consensus maintains that we must limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels to prevent the most severe consequences of climate change. Globally, this requires reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030.

As a response, the UN established the years from 2021 to 2030 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Proclaiming that “the ocean holds the keys to an equitable and sustainable planet,” this framework aims at identifying, generating, and using “transformative ocean science solutions for sustainable development, connecting people and our ocean.” The Ocean Decade underscores that (1) there is an urgent need to mitigate climate change to protect the oceans and, at the same time (2) we need the oceans to help us stop climate change. From the use of algae to reduce CO₂ emissions, to clean energy in the form of offshore wind farms and wave-generated power, blue technology is key to a future in which we halt our reliance on fossil fuels and reabsorb our past emissions. If we protect marine biodiversity and ecosystem health by reimagining the fishing industry and curbing pollution, we can magnify the ability of the oceans to combat climate change through nature-based solutions. 

Three years after the start of the UN Ocean Decade (2021-2030), the 2024 UN Ocean Decade Conference brought together the Ocean Decade global community and partners to celebrate achievements and set joint priorities for the future of the Decade. The Conference was hosted by Spain and co-organized with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO). It took place at a unique moment in the global ocean governance landscape with the recent emergence of 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 (BBNJ Agreement), the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the ongoing negotiations of a global treaty on plastics, and the formalization of the Ocean-Climate Dialogue in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Ocean Decade has a clear potential to contribute essential science and knowledge to support implementation of these important instruments and protect the ocean and thus the planet in a way that is sustainable, inclusive, equitable, and peaceable.

Intersectionality Matters

As noted, the Conference revolved around 10 “Ocean Decade Challenges” discussed in 10 white papers still under development. The white paper on “Vision 2030 Challenge 10: Changing Humanity’s Relationship with the Ocean” identifies four key drivers that are foundational to restoring humanity’s relationship with the ocean: (1) knowledge systems; (2) communications; (2) education; and (2) cultural connections. This approach emphasizes that physical ocean science and data must work hand-in-hand with societal needs and socio-cultural sources of inspiration, motivation, and innovation. Proposing an intersectional whole-of-society approach, it is aimed at all relevant stakeholders including “natural scientists, social scientists, local knowledge holders, policy makers, science communicators, educators, and artists – across generations, genders, and geographies.”

Other white papers that explicitly acknowledge the vital role of intersectional gender in identifying and delivering blue approaches to sustainable development include Sustainably Feeding the Global Population (Challenge #3), where “gender, equity, culture, and indigenous rights” are emphasized, and Developing a Sustainable and Equitable Ocean Economy (Challenge #4) that reminds us of that “gender consideration, especially the inclusion of women and girls throughout all discussions related to ocean conservation, is a must,” as are the “equity dimensions of data, such as gender and diversity of actors.”

Other white papers only mention gender, diversity, or intersectionality in passing. For instance, Expanding the Global Ocean Observing Systems (Challenge #7) briefly refers to Indigenous rights and notes the role of diversity, understood as “experience level, gender, national origin, cultural, and ethnicity.” Similarly, Increasing Community Resilience to Ocean Hazards (Challenge #6) only alludes to “the needs and priorities of different populations (e.g. women, the elderly and children).” Thus, women are seen only as a potentially vulnerable category. While gender-based vulnerabilities are well documented, so is women's leadership for development, resilience to disaster risks, and sustainability, a reality that must be acknowledged in Ocean Decade Challenges materials if these are to be truly inclusive. Disappointingly, gender considerations are not mentioned at all in the white paper on Unlocking Ocean-based Solutions to Climate Change (Challenge #5), whose current draft appears to adopt a largely technocratic understanding of the ocean-climate nexus. Nevertheless, climate change was recognized as a cross-cutting issue that impacts all other sectors and priorities identified at the UN Ocean Decade.

A Call to Action

The UN Ocean Decade Conference brought together the Ocean Decade community and partners to celebrate achievements and set joint priorities for the future of the Decade. In order to fulfil the 10 Ocean Decade Challenges on the road to 2030, the Conference issued a Call to Action, urging to all societal actors, including government, philanthropy, UN entities, industry, and the scientific community to engage in the Ocean Decade through two main approaches:

• The development of partnerships for the co-design and co-delivery of transformative Decade Actions that translate the priorities identified during the Conference into tangible action.

• Increased investment of in-kind and financial resources in ocean science, including the development of policies and innovative financial instruments.

Another important outcome of the Conference is the Barcelona Statement. Based on insights shared by the global ocean community, the Barcelona Statement identifies priority areas of action for the Ocean Decade in the coming years. These include “continuing to enhance diversity, inclusivity and equity in the Ocean Decade and systematically identify and remove barriers to generational, geographic, and gender diversity.”  Ocean conflict must be transformed through situated sustainability pathways that privilege human needs, justice, and intersectional gender equity. 

In the words of Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, promoting gender equality is a “crucial contribution in our efforts to restore, protect our planet’s oceans,” and that requires mobilizing citizens across cultures, gender and generations to preserve the ocean “because it is about our very survival as a species.”

Dr. Marisa O. Ensor is an applied environmental and legal anthropologist currently based at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) where she leads the portfolio on climate security.  She is also the current Chair of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association’s Gender Interest Group (“EnPAx-GIG”).