(Science|Business) Lamy sounds alarm as ocean research community moves to fill knowledge gaps

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Significant gaps are appearing in international efforts to address the state of the ocean, according to Pascal Lamy. “At a time when, unfortunately, we see the US distancing themselves from ocean action [. . .] there is a sort of void appearing,” the former trade chief said during the All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance forum, held in Brussels on September 25 and 26. He went on to say that Europe might “limit the damage” by reinforcing its cooperation with Africa.

Meanwhile, the scientific community is moving to fill the knowledge gaps in the Atlantic basin, including the crucial polar regions.

Lamy is a former EU trade commissioner and director general of the World Trade Organisation, who also chaired the high-level panel that advised the European Commission on the current Horizon Europe programme. He now chairs the board of the Horizon Europe Mission for the restoration of the ocean and other waters, which is developing a European digital ocean twin, among other initiatives. 

The heightened cooperation with Africa that Lamy has in mind could include implementing an African Ocean Pact modelled on the European Ocean Pact. “There is potential [but] we still have to test whether the African Union is ready to go in this direction. They have their own planning [. . .] on these hydrosphere issues,” he said.

Another idea is the creation of an Africa-Europe innovation and finance hub. Its purpose “would be not just policy, but incubation and [building] capacities or possibilities to attract blue finance,” Lamy added. 

This proposal, initiated by the Africa-Europe Foundation, is due to be discussed further at the third edition of the Blue Africa Summit in early October. 

Boosting ocean knowledge

Other speakers at the conference discussed the need to close the gaps in our knowledge about the Atlantic Ocean through greater coordination within the ocean community.

“The production of ocean knowledge is challenged at a global scale,” said Raphaël Goulet, deputy director for international ocean governance and sustainable fisheries at the Commission. “It is distributed across processes and organisations in a fragmented manner and falls a bit in between existing structures.”

To this end, the alliance has launched two initiatives to strengthen coastal resilience and scientific collaboration. 

The first, known as the All-Atlantic Network of Coastal Resilience Beacon Sites, consists of local areas where communities can test and implement coastal resilience actions. The second, the Blue Intergenerational Programme, is designed to connect ocean experts across geographies which, ultimately, will encourage cooperation at higher levels.

“In the ocean resilience space, the establishment of beacons provides a basis [for] international cooperation with local peculiarities taken into account,” said Imran Patel, deputy director general for research, development and support at South Africa’s Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, in his address to the conference.

Goulet also said that he waned to see the forthcoming International Platform for Ocean Sustainability build on existing processes, such as the United Nations World Ocean Assessment and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to help overcome the fragmentation of ocean knowledge and boost the science-policy interface. 

Coordinating polar research

The conference also heard calls for more research on the polar regions, for the influence that they have over broader ocean processes. 

“They host potential tipping points such as thawing glaciers, irreversible sea ice loss, permafrost fall and large-scale circulation changes, which will trigger abrupt and self-reinforcing impacts far beyond the poles,” explained Nicole Biebow, who leads the international cooperation unit at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research.

“No Atlantic nation is immune to the consequences of polar change,” said Kylie Owen, officer of the European Polar Coordination Office, citing rising sea levels, changing ocean circulation patterns and shifting marine species distribution, which affect coastal communities, rainfall and agriculture and fisheries.

Filling knowledge gaps at the poles means working in extreme conditions. “No single country can observe or understand the polar system on their own,” Owen said. “These are complex systems that are expensive to study and logistically challenging to access, and the science we need is long-term in nature.” 

She pointed to the necessity of pooling and sharing infrastructure, data and expertise to transfer the knowledge that will inform national strategies and underpin international agreements, bolstering coordinated action. 

“In practice, coordination means that data collected in Antarctica can inform coastal planning in Brazil, or that Arctic observations can warn about extreme weather in Africa and Europe,” she added. “Whether it’s tracking pollution pathways, predicting ecosystem shifts or supporting regional adaptation strategies, countries that invest in coordinated polar science will be better prepared to act and to lead.”

Involving private stakeholders

According to Biebow, there is a need to build a global ecosystem of organisations collecting ocean data, including national data centres and large research institutions. An Atlantic consortium would be a suitable pilot project. “Whether it is under Horizon Europe or not, it is not that important,” she said.

This should also involve the private sector. Dutch geo-data provider Fugro, for example, has worked with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission to establish the Ocean Decade Corporate Data Group. This comprises private companies in sectors ranging from fisheries to telecommunications that are willing to make privately-held ocean data public and, in turn, support ocean observation efforts.

Louis Demargne, global key account manager at Fugro, said that it would also push global companies to harmonise their collecting formats and procedures. “Forcing us to share also forces us to standardise our processes,” he said.

But sharing much of the data collected within exclusive economic zones required the approval of national governments. To this end, Fugro advises international governments to make it mandatory for private sector companies to share their data as part of permitting or licencing processes.

Joanna Post, director of the Ocean Observations and Services Section at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, added that there was “a strong business case” for ocean observing, but it needs to be scalable and cost effective, with evidence of the cost-benefit. 

Demargne agreed. In efforts to increase the involvement of industry, the narrative must link science to business objectives. One instance, he said, could be: “we can improve the ocean forecasting models that will help you plan your operations more effectively, and that’s a return on the time spent with scientists.”