Our Ocean conference “Our Ocean, an Ocean for Life”

Apolimer was attending the Our Ocean conference 2017 in Malta. This event, the 4^th since 2014, was this year hosted by the European Union. Karmenu Vella, the Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission, wanted to take the opportunity to do it in his maritime country as a symbol.

The well-known statement of the climate change and its impact on the ocean was assumed by everyone. The focus was made on the urgency to act and take general measures for the ocean.

The main purpose was to commit and invest in favour of the sustainability and the improvement of innovative solutions for the ocean. A global 6 billion euros of commitments has been announced by public and private actors to engage concrete actions for the protection and the sustainable development of the ocean. The European Union by itself amounted over 550 million euros in 36 commitments. Moreover, with all the member states engaged and the European Investment Bank the total involved money is about 2.8 billion euros.

As a side event the youth summit was gathering 100 young ocean leaders (students and entrepreneur) to present projects and discuss about solutions for the ocean and their future. Most of the main speakers went to meet them and reminded the importance of future generations and their predominant role in the sustainable exploitation and protection of oceans.

The next Our Ocean conference will be held in October 2018 in Indonesia.