The UN Ocean Decade conference took place in Barcelona in April 2024. The Planet Beyond team was there, recording episodes at our on-site studio. During the conference, we released three short episodes looking at each day’s agenda. And we recorded interviews for five long episodes that will run every fortnight, up until Ocean Day, June 8.

In each episode, Jon Baston-Pitt speaks to participants in the conference’s five plenary sessions. In this episode, we look at issues discussed in the first session, Science and Solutions for a Clean, Healthy and Resilient Ocean. We talk to two participants in the plenary session roundtable, Jean-Pierre Gattuso and Aileen Tan, and we are joined by Pooja Mahapatra.

A central theme of the Decade has been the science-to-policy pathway, and co-design with local communities. In this episode, we ask if we have the science we need to start taking action on ocean health. And we find out how scientists are informing policy in practice, and taking their understanding of climate change and other threats to ocean health out to their local communities.

Host

Jon Baston-Pitt, Fugro

Guests

Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Research Director at the Laboratory of Oceanography of Villefranche, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Aileen Tan, Director of Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS), Universiti Sains Malaysia

Pooja Mahapatra, Principal Adviser, Climate and Nature, Fugro