The ocean has recently taken centre stage in the global geopolitical landscape. Despite rising challenges to the effectiveness of multilateralism, attention to ocean issues appears as an opportunity to co-create pathways to ocean sustainability at multiple levels. The ocean science community, however, is not sufficiently well organised to advance these pathways and provide policy input.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services demonstrate how knowledge consensus and integration have been instrumental in charting global pathways and eliciting commitments to address, respectively, climate change and biodiversity loss. An equally impactful global platform with a thematic focus on ocean sustainability is needed. Here we introduce the International Panel for Ocean Sustainability (IPOS) as a coordinating mechanism to integrate knowledge systems to forge a bridge across ocean science-policy divides collectively. The IPOS will enrich the global policy debate in the Ocean Decade and support a shift toward ocean sustainability.
By Françoise Gaill, Tanya Brodie Rudolph, Lara Lebleu, Denis Allemand, Robert Blasiak, William W. L. Cheung, Joachim Claudet, Leopoldo Cavaleri Gerhardinger, Nadine Le Bris, Lisa Levin, Hans- Otto Pörtner, Martin Visbeck, Anna Zivian, Pierre Bahurel, Laurent Bopp, Chris Bowler, Frédérique Chlous, Philippe Cury, Didier Gascuel, Sylvie Goyet, Nathalie Hilmi, Frédéric Ménard, Fiorenza Micheli, Lauren Mullineaux, Rémi Parmentier, Marie-Alexandrine Sicre, Sabrina Speich, Olivier Thébaud, Torsten Thiele, Martha Bowler, Philippe Charvis, Raphael Cuvelier, François Houllier, Sarah Palazot, Francis Staub & Olivier Poivre d’Arvor