The Government of the Republic of Palau today announced that the 7th Our Ocean Conference (OOC) set to take place in Koror, Palau on 7th-8th December 2020 has been postponed to 2021.
This decision has been taken by the Republic of Palau in consultation with the OOC Advisory Group. The OOC Advisory Group is comprised of representatives of previous, current and future host. The OOC Advisory Group is chaired currently by the host: Palau, represented by Sherpas from Panama (future host), Norway 2019, Indonesia 2018, EU 2017, US 2016, Chile 2015 and US 2014. OOC will now be held tentatively in 2021, and specific dates will be set out in due course.
President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr., President of the Republic of Palau, said:
“While we had hoped that the pandemic would abate, continuing public health concerns and travel restrictions have made an in-person conference in Palau infeasible at this time.” “We want the Conference to continue to engage in high-level dialogue, build meaningful partnerships and mobilize ambitious new commitments for our ocean, and this will be best achieved by an in-person meeting next year as opposed to a virtual conference now. We were delighted to have launched our Global Village conference facilities last month, with the support of our partners, and look forward to being able to use these venues next year for its intended purpose to host the Our Ocean 7 in 2021.”
“As we approach the end of the year, we need to bear in mind that the world will not have met the biodiversity targets for our ocean that we set a decade ago in Aichi, Japan under the Convention on Biodiversity. We hope that Our Ocean 2021 can be a moment to build back bluer and showcase new action coalitions and partnerships in our transition to a sustainable ocean economy.”
New preparatory timelines for Our Ocean 2021 will be launched next year.
The Our Ocean Conferences aim to track tangible commitments, announce action-oriented solutions and build partnerships between governments, business industries, NGOs/civil society organizations and youth. With the support of the latest science, technology and knowledge together with finance in hopes to turn initiatives into action, to meet the challenges facing the ocean and enable protection and sustainable use to go hand in hand so that the ocean can continue to provide for the needs of the future generation.