Leading ocean experts propose a new International Panel for Ocean Sustainability (IPOS) to build consensus and inform policy. This new international panel could translate ocean research into policy action.
Story highlights
- A new international ocean panel could find consensus and provide solid science-based policy input
- It would be transdisciplinary and cross-cutting between already existing scientific panels and processes, such as the IPCC and IPBES
- The panel should support flexible and dynamic policies, which can adapt as the ocean and the societies that depend on it change
The ocean science community has, so far, not been sufficiently well organized to provide coherent policy input on a global scale. The Intergovernmental panels on climate (IPCC) and biodiversity (IPBES) have, however, demonstrated that it is possible to find consensus and provide a solid scientific foundation for governance of global sustainability issues.
Now, an international team of more than 30 scholars and other experts propose the establishment of an equally impactful global platform on the ocean. They call it the International Panel for Ocean Sustainability (IPOS), and its structure and framing are described in detail in a recent article published in the journal npj Ocean Sustainability.
