Towards an IPOS – The Gateway Between Ocean Knowledge and Policy Action

Geneviève Pons-Deladrière participated the event ‘Towards an IPOS – The Gateway Between Ocean Knowledge and Policy Action’, organised in the context of the 2024 Monaco Ocean Week. She gave her insights on what type of organisation would maximise the chances of the future International Panel on Ocean Sustainability (IPOS) to be set before June 2025, in time for the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) as well as its ability to deliver useful recommendations.

Our Director General, underlining how difficult it would be to set up an intergovernmental organisation in such a short time and how problematic it would be to obtain rapid consensus on relevant recommendations in such an organisation, proposed as an alternative to take the expert group of the EU Starfish Mission 2030 as a model.

An international expert group could be set at global level. Criteria for the selection of the members will have to be defined rapidly according to the IPOS needs, to facilitate the selection work of the United Nations Secretary-General.

This was received by the audience as a promising way to establish the IPOS in time for the 2025 UNOC3.

Ocean science and governance are at the heart of the Starfish Mission which seeks to restore our ocean and waters’ health and develop our knowledge. The Starfish Mission's global vocation has already been embraced by the Bizerte Declaration on international ocean governance.

Let’s work together to drive global policy action for a sustainable ocean!