Monday 3 November 2025 – Today, the Ocean & Climate Platform launches its new Policy Recommendations, endorsed by 87 members of its network. These recommendations are the result of a months-long collective effort gathering the knowledge and expertise of its members and embody their shared ambition to turn the tide for the Ocean, Climate and Biodiversity. Together, they call for urgent, systemic change to restore the ocean’s health and strengthen the global response to the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
A Decade of Progress and a Renewed Sense of Urgency
Created in 2014, ahead of COP21, the Ocean & Climate Platform emerged from a simple yet powerful conviction: the ocean, vital to our climate system, could no longer remain absent from global negotiations. From a mention in the preamble of the Paris Agreement – its first victory, the OCP has both witnessed and contributed to the growing inclusion of the ocean from the margins to the heart of global climate and biodiversity agendas.
Yet, ten years later, even as recognition of the ocean’s role has grown, a lot remains to be done. The ocean and the communities that depend on it continue to face a wide range of mounting pressures. At the same time, science faces growing attacks and disinformation continues to spread. Multilateralism and international cooperation are under growing strain, with rising geopolitical tensions, fragmented interests, and short-term national agendas eroding the trust and solidarity needed to confront global crises that no country can solve alone. The world has profoundly changed – and with it, the imperative to move on from pledges to action has never been clearer.
A Call for Science-Based, Accelerated, and Transformative Action
Against this backdrop, the Ocean & Climate Platform delivers a clear vision with its new policy recommendations: one where decisions are grounded in evidence, solutions delivered with urgency, and the systems that are eroding the ocean’s health profoundly transformed. It promotes a shift from reactive crisis response to proactive, long-term resilience, and from fragmented approaches to systemic, coordinated action—amplifying science-based, inclusive, and equitable solutions that ensure enduring benefits for people and the planet.
Articulated around three strategic pillars— Understand, Deliver, Reshape —, the recommendations outline a roadmap toward a healthy, resilient ocean by 2030. They are specifically directed at national and international decision-makers, calling on them to uphold their commitments, strengthen cooperation, and engage with all actors in collective action. If effectively implemented, these recommendations will ensure that:
- Both scientific research and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities form the foundation of decision-making;
- Ocean-based solutions are widely deployed, unlocking their full potential for mitigation and adaptation while delivering co-benefits for nature and people;
- Our socio-economic, financial, and political systems undergo the profound transformations needed to restore the ocean’s health, while fostering climate resilience, human well-being, inclusive growth, and shared prosperity.
Ten proposals for the ten years of the Paris Agreement
These recommendations culminate in ten key proposals to guide policymakers in shaping governance priorities. These actionable measures form a collective agenda to accelerate ocean-based solutions and align efforts across sectors and scales, spanning across accelerating the energy transition, protecting ocean ecosystems and enhance their resilience and Strengthen governance and cooperation. Together, they chart the course for a new era – one of tangible progress for the ocean, the climate, and people.
The OCP will champion these policy recommendations for years to come, starting at UNFCCC COP30 in Belém, Brazil (10–21 November). Indeed, the launch of these Policy Recommendations comes ahead of COP30 — a pivotal moment for the ocean and the climate. With the Brazilian Presidency emphasizing the ocean alongside forests as the planet’s two lungs, COP30 offers a unique opportunity to strengthen the ocean’s place in global climate governance and secure the transformations needed to achieve global climate, biodiversity and sustainability goals.