The international symposium was held under the theme of "Climate Change & Ocean Challenge – Towards the Era of a Blue Economy" and had as objective a reassessment of the global efforts related to the preservation of the oceans and the coasts, a sharing of experiences, best practices and wisdom related to climate change and oceans.
The oceans are a central element in climate change. Close to half of the world's population lives in the coastal areas and will face serious challenges due to ocean warming, sea level rise, ice melting, vulnerable bio-diversity and ocean acidification. The oceans and the climate are so inextricably linked that without taking both of them into consideration agreements on plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation actions in the future cannot be formulated.
Biliana Cicin-Sain, Professor of Marine Policy at University of Delaware and co-chair for the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands made the keynote speech.
Danny Philip, Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, a country with an extremely rich marine environment negatively affected by climate change, made a special speech.
Mahamed Aslam, Minister of Housing, Transport and Environment of Maldives, was also present and spoke on behalf of his country. The Maldives is known to be vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise due to its low altitude from the mean sea level.
A great number of leading figures and experts on the ocean attended the event.
The forum was comprised of 8 general sessions and 6 special sessions (to see the complete programme, please click here).
General sessions:
Session I, "Climate Crisis & Oceans Adaptation"
Session II, "Ocean Civilization"Session III, "Green Port, Green Shipping"
Session IV, "Marine Bio-Med"
Session VI, "Ocean Policy & Governance"
Session VII, "Ocean Tourism & Cruise Industry"
Session VIII, "New Paradigms for Fisheries"
Special sessions:
Session I: Climate Change & the Shipping Industry;
Session II: International Cooperation for 'Marine Debris' in China, Japan, and Korea;
Session III: The Asian Network for Using Algae as a CO2 Sink;
Session IV: The Role of Design in the Marine Era;
Session V: Promotion Strategy & Human Resources Development for Offshore Plant Industry;
Session VI: Marine Science & Technology Transfer Seminar 2010
The third meeting of the International Selection Committee of the Ocean and Coast Best Practices Area (OCBPA) of Expo 2012 Yeosu and the Meeting for the National Review Committee on the Yeosu Declaration were also held in conjunction with the symposium.
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