WMO joined the United Nations to mark World Oceans Day on 8 June with the theme “Life and Livelihoods”. The Day’s events highlighted the wonders of the ocean and how it is our life source, supporting humanity and every other organism on Earth, and emphasized what we can do to create sustainable and inclusive livelihoods for all who depend on it.
WMO plays a significant role in supporting Members to protect lives, livelihoods and property from the dangers of climate and weather-driven marine and coastal hazards, for people along the coast and at sea. To mark the day, WMO launched the new WMO Oceans webpage which provides a summary of the breadth of WMO’s ocean activities. It also features the new WMO Ocean video narrated by United Nation’s Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Ambassador Peter Thomson. A WMO web news on World Oceans Day highlighted the vital role of WMO in ocean science for sustainable development. On World Oceans Day, submissions involving WMO’s co-sponsored entities – World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and OceanOps – were formally endorsed as Decade activities.
WMO celebrated the ocean theme for the second time this year as the Ocean, our Climate and Weather was also the theme of World Meteorological Day on 23 March. A dedicated ”Ocean” themed issue of the WMO Bulletin was published on that day to mark the event. World Met Day was a formally endorsed contribution from WMO to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021 to 2030.
WMO has also been appointed as a Nominating Agency for The Earthshot Prize: the most prestigious global environmental prize in history, designed to incentivize change and help repair our planet over the next ten years. The Prize aims to turn the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism by highlighting the ability of human ingenuity to bring about change and by inspiring collective action. For World Oceans Day, ocean and climate-related Earthshot videos were also shared to encourage WMO Members and stakeholders to consider submitting proposals for the Earthshot Prize. Ideas can be sent to earthshotprizeinfo@wmo.int.
The official UN World Oceans Day virtual event produced in partnership with Oceanic Global also took place on 8 June. This inclusive event had a stream of entertainment and discussions, to raise global awareness of the benefits that humans derive from the ocean and using its resources sustainably. The WMO Ocean video was also featured in the official UN World Oceans Day virtual event, in the UN-Oceans segment. The event had over 270 000 participants logged in worldwide and it was followed in 175 UN Member States.
