Ocean Visions Summit Roundtable Discussion Summary
The Center for Ocean Leadership (COL) organized a roundtable session at the Ocean Visions Summit, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia from April 4-6, 2023. The title of the session was Breaking Down Barriers and Generating a Unified Community at the Nexus of the Ocean-Climate Crisis. The goal of this one hour session was to initiate a discussion on the critical needs and barriers that must to be addressed in order to build an effective community prepared to respond to the climate crisis, and identify some high-level actions to undertake post-Summit to launch this work.
The session was moderated by COL Interim Director, Dr. Andy Rosenberg, and panelists included Ms. Anna-Marie Laura (The Ocean Conservancy), Dr. Fio Micheli (Stanford University), Dr. Dionne Hoskins-Brown (NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center and Savannah State University), and Mr. Deerin Babb-Brott (White House Office of Science and Technology Policy).
The session was organized around four primary questions:
- What are the structures needed to pull sectors, key interests, institutions, and communities together to agree on common goals and strategies for ocean-based climate change action?
- What is the best way to incentivize different sectors, interests, institutions, and communities to work together?
- How can the benefits of concerted, collaborative action directly flow to those on the frontlines of climate change impacts, particularly historically marginalized communities?
- What are the resources needed to develop strong and enduring collaboration structures and where are the most promising sources for those resources?
Panelists’ responses to these questions were summarized into a key findings document, which is available here. In summary, the main takeaways were as follows:
- Emphasize the importance of coalitions.
- Democratize access to information.
- Inclusion must be built in from the start.
- Funding and other resources can incentivize collaboration and action, but they are often siloed and exclusive rather than inclusive.
- Capacity building must go hand-in-hand with capacity sharing.
- The benefits of collaborative action must positively impact marginalized communities.
COL was grateful for the time and expertise the panelists provided in planning for and executing this important discussion. The Ocean Visions Summit was an energizing event that provided a great opportunity for COL to engage with the ocean-climate community. More information about the Summit, including a highlights summary, can be found here and here.