Launch of the Centre for Blue Governance, University of Portsmouth

February 13, 2020 -
Portsmouth, UK

The Centre for Blue Governance (CBG) at the University of Portsmouth, UK, launched on 13 February 2020 as an interdisciplinary initiative with over 45 researchers from different disciplines collaborating to meet the global challenge of advancing the sustainable Blue Economy.

The World Ocean Council (WOC) – the Global Blue Economy Business Organization – was invited to be a part of the high level CBG launch seminar, with CEO Paul Holthus as Keynote Speaker on “Blue Finance”. 

This builds on the WOC’s pioneering efforts on Blue Finance and on Ocean Governance, e.g. developing the Ocean Investment Platform, convening the most comprehensive global Blue Economy investment event to date (Sustainable Ocean Summit 2019 “Investing in Ocean Futures”), and providing thought leadership on “Ocean Governance and the Private Sector”.

Over 60 international and UK organization leaders, experts and researchers related to the Blue Economy attended the CBG launch. The event was jointly organized with IOC/UNESCO to define the blue governance challenge and to propose a framework that will facilitate the implementation of policies that meet the objectives of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Defining critical aspects at the onset of the Decade will advance democratic and sustainable use of the oceans for people and nature. The event focused on the challenges faced in developing countries to promote the UN principles of sustainable development.

Expected outcomes of the CBG launch seminar on 13 February were:

  1. Initial framework outlining the path towards implementing blue governance in developing countries in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development
  2. Characterizing the importance of blue governance during the Decade and identifying priority activities and knowledge gaps to be addressed for a paper targeting Nature/Science

 

About the Centre for Blue Governance:

The objective of the Centre for Blue Governance is to contribute to the design, setting-up and implementation of Blue Governance in countries, regions and political entities. It aims, more specifically, to develop and provide necessary transdisciplinary and actionable research expertise at both sectoral (various economic branches) and overall levels (coordination, planning), with a strong emphasis on addressing coherence challenge among nature conservation, economic development and social interests.

The Centre’s four central themes are: 1) Blue Policies, Planning and Security; 2) Blue Energy, Technologies and Transport Solutions; 3) Biodiversity, Blue Carbon and Climate Change; and 4) Aquatic Resources Management). Current and future projects will be both regional and international in scope, and be multi-stakeholder across research, private sector and policy agencies.

The University of Portsmouth is an ambitious and expanding institution that has achieved ‘gold’ standard in TEF and ranked 21st in the UK in Guardian League Table.

For CBG information please see http://port.ac.uk/centreforbluegovernance and for enquiries about being considered as a potential collaborator, please email: cbg@port.ac.uk