Mercator Ocean International

Group on Earth Observations – GEO Week 2022

Statement of Mercator Ocean International

A Participating Organisation since 2019, Mercator Ocean International (MOi) strongly supports and contributes to GEO’s strategic vision 2025 by developing and sharing ocean knowledge, integrating digital solutions into sustainable services, and engaging with society to address the challenges facing our oceans and planet.

Since 2020, Mercator has been hosting the GEO Blue Planet European office with funding from the European Union (EU). Strongly aligned with GEO’s mission, GEO Blue Planet, GEO’s coastal and ocean arm, promotes open, coordinated, and sustained data sharing and infrastructure for better research, policy making, decisions and action. The EU coordination is facilitated by the EU4OceanObs project implemented by MOi. Amongst other activities, EU4OceanObs works to strengthen Europe’s participation and influence in the GEO international partnership and GEO’s other ocean related initiatives. The EU Office, together with the US Office (hosted by NOAA & University of Maryland) and a new Asian office (Korea Maritime Institute (KMI)) created this year, provide scientific and logistical support for GEO Blue Planet activities, coordinate activities and develop new partnerships.

A flagship event this year is GEO Blue Planet’s 5th Symposium, which takes place in Accra, Ghana, in the week preceding GEO Week 2022. Organised every few years, the symposia promote interactions between stakeholders and the observing community and gather feedback and guidance on GEO Blue Planet activities, shaping future developments. The last symposium was held in 2018 In Toulouse, France hosted by MOi, and MOi is proudly the leading organiser of this fifth edition.

This year’s symposium, themed Local Action in Support of Global Traction, is specifically geared towards improving GEO Blue Planet’s engagement with African nations in an effort to expand the ocean and coastal observation community, strengthen local capacity and enhance access to resources, tools and services. The Symposium seeks to provide participants with comprehensive insight into the application and capability of Ocean and Coastal Observations around the themes of Fisheries, Ecosystem Conservation and Coastal Hazards. The event will also feature an interactive poster forum, thematic workshops and training sessions. We are looking to welcome approximately 200 participants from varying levels of government, international agencies, research institutions, commercial sectors and other local stakeholders including policy makers, Earth Observations experts and students.

So far, 2022 has paved a promising future for MOi and its contribution to GEO. At the One Ocean Summit in Brest on 10 February 2022, six countries (Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, UK and France) signed the “Declaration of Brest” and committed to transform MOi into an Intergovernmental Organisation. This new status will considerably strengthen MOi’s capacity for developing the European Digital Twin of the Ocean. At the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon in June 2022, the Intergovernmental Ocean Commission of UNESCO announced that MOi will implement the International Collaborative Centre for Ocean Prediction in the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030.

These prospects can only be beneficial in consolidating our future contributions to GEO to support Earth Observation-based sustainable solutions and services for making ocean knowledge accessible to all, and strengthening science-policy dialogues.