Last Thursday, at the Our Ocean Conference (OOC) in Palau, the EU has renewed its pledges toward international Ocean governance. Presenting a list of 44 commitments for the 2020-2022 period for an amount of almost €1 billion, the EU has brought forward its most important commitments ever offered during an Our Ocean Conference, in terms of value.

The Our Ocean Conference is a key moment for countries across the world, civil society, and industry to commit to concrete and significant actions to protect the ocean. The theme of the 2022 edition is ‘Our Ocean, Our People, Our Prosperity', and it draws global partners to identify solutions to sustainably manage marine resources, increase the ocean's resilience to climate change and safeguard its health for generations to come.

At the Our Ocean Conference, the EU has taken commitments covering all the themes of this international event: marine protected areas; tackling marine pollution; confronting the ocean-climate crisis; creating sustainable blue economies; advancing sustainable small-scale fisheries and aquaculture; and achieving a safe, just and secure ocean. The EU has also developed a commitment tracking tool to allow citizens to follow the progress of the implementation of the commitments.

The EU is conscious of the challenges facing the ocean and has put a strong focus this year on protecting and restoring it, for example by contributing to initiatives such as the One Ocean Summit (in February, Brest) and the forthcoming UN Ocean Conference (in June-July, Lisbon).

The EU is also currently updating its International Ocean Governance Agenda to take into account, in a comprehensive way, ocean challenges and recent developments, but also opportunities presented by the European Green Deal.

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