United Nations Launch of the Second World Ocean Assessment

The Second World Ocean Assessment (WOA II), the major output of the second cycle of the Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the States of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, will be launched on 21 April 2021, in connection with Earth Day 2021 which will be observed on 22 April. It is the newest outcome of the only integrated assessment of the world’s ocean at the global level covering all three pillars of sustainable development.

The first World Ocean Assessment (WOA I), which was released at the end of 2015, established a baseline for measuring the state of marine environment, including socioeconomic aspects. WOA II focuses on trends observed since the publication of WOA I and current gaps in knowledge and capacity.

The launch event will be streaming on 21 April 2021 at 10 a.m., EDT at the following webpage: Launch of the Second World Ocean Assessment (WOA II).

Speakers

• António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
• Sylvia Earle, President & Chair, Mission Blue
• Vladimir Ryabinin, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and Assistant Director General of UNESCO
• Juliette Babb-Riley, Deputy Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, Co-Chair of the second cycle of the Regular Process 
• Sanae Chiba, Member of the Group of Experts for the second cycle of the Regular Process, Biological oceanographer of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology 
• Shafira Charlette, youth representative, Seychelles 

Photo by Mike Doherty on Unsplash