intro music
Welcome to World Ocean Radio…
I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory.
If observation and science are the first foundation pieces for a future ocean plan, then policy is the second. Policy is defined as “ a deliberate system of guidelines to inform decisions and achieve rational outcomes. Policy is a statement of intent.” Policy can take many forms. It can be a codified outline of decisions made; it can be an articulated plan for action; it can be a set of laws, regulations, and administrative procedures; it can be a function of ethics, accepted principles, consensus, incentives, and other practices that are a context for the transformation of ideas into actions. Science and observation justify policy, argue against its denial, and provide authority and context for its implementation.
Ocean policy exists in many forms as promoted by national and local governments, public agencies and private lobbies, political and social pressure groups, and individual theorists – all part of a dynamic that, regardless of outcome, drives and shapes civil society and its future. Good policy is often a reaction to the results of bad policy, bad policy is often a motivation for good. Policy represents the identification of needs and best practices, integrates change into law, and otherwise presents an agreed-upon strategy and plan for action that is acceptable to most, until it isn’t, and is challenged by the reality of its consequence.
There is no dearth of ocean policy. The United Nations presides over international issues, with various sub-organizations to include ISA, the International Seabed Authority; IMO, the International Maritime Organization; FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization; IOC, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The UN has also proposed The Sustainable Development Goals a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet now and into the future.” Number 14 is Life Below Water, the only one that interrelates directly to all the rest.
There are other UN initiatives, just as there are equivalent specialized agencies in regional alliances such as the European Union or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the Alliance of Small Island States ,that combine local interests, defined by a shared geography, to create and implement policy related to their specific circumstance. And then, there is a further break-out of policy as directly applied to a nation state, sometimes created as an unique objective, sometime affirmed by adherence to a treaty, an affirmation of approval and engagement such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea ratified by 157 nations. That this treaty is not ratified by the United States is a definitive statement of policy. Another highly relevant example is the Paris Climate Accords, the international treaty on climate change that speaks directly to the relation of the ocean to changing climate conditions everyday more evident, undeniable, and destructive. The US has ratified this one, and recent policies and proposals have attempted to expand and finance outcomes through legislation, targeted incentives, and measurable results. Policy in action.
Policy can also be advanced by funding through such agencies as the UN Development Program, the Global Environment Facility, and the World Bank. By funding innovation, based on policy values and structures, behavioral change can be demonstrated creating an internal example and voice for new or changed policy within the country granted.
And finally, there has merged an investment context: ESGS, new environmental, social, and governance standards for private investment and social criteria, measures of a company's environmental, social, and political conduct designed to inform a new generation of socially conscious investors by evaluation of corporate behavior – its relationship with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities in which it operates, as well as reviews of leadership, executive pay, accounting, audits, equity and diversity, and shareholder rights – each a demonstration of policy newly examined.
As with Science, Policy is an existing, powerful tool for RESCUE: R for renewal; E for environment; S for society; C for collaboration; U for understanding; and E for engagement.
We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
outro music
