The University of Bergen (UiB) will send a delegation of six to the second United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC2022), taking place in Lisbon 27 June-1 July. UNOC2022 is co-hosted by Portugal and Kenya and brings together policy makers, diplomats, industry, civil society, academia, and other stakeholders to discuss progress on the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. There will be discussions on Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14), Life below water, at the conference with a special focus on progress towards its targets and subgoals in the 2030 Agenda.
UiB had a strong presence at the inaugural UNOC in New York, June 2017, and aims to follow up on the two voluntary commitments made then planning four new commitments with global partners at UNOC2022. These will include science diplomacy efforts to shape public policy to strengthen ocean literacy globally with partners such as the University of the South Pacific, the University of the West Indies, and the University of Cape Town.
The university will also co-sponsor several side events at the conference and partake in activities organised by Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Research Council of Norway. UiB has co-sponsored events with MFA before, including at the 2019 UN High-level Political Forum.
There will also be a presence as part of a special Ocean Decade event, including a presentation of UiB’s official Ocean Decade Action – the interdisciplinary Norway-Pacific Ocean Climate Scholarship Programme (N-POC), to educate 25 PhDs at the University of the South Pacific across ocean sciences.
