This year’s theme for World Ocean Day is "Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean". The ocean connects, sustains, and supports us all. Yet its health is at a tipping point and so is the well-being of all that depends on it. As the past years have shown us, we need to work together to create a new balance with the ocean that no longer depletes its bounty but instead restores its vibrancy and brings it new life.

World Oceans Day 2022 is about revitalising our blue planet. On this day, we highlight the fundamental importance of the ocean to life on earth, and the need for a collective global approach to protect and restore the ocean, and to use the ocean´s enormous potential in a sustainable way to the benefit of societies around the globe.

- Joint Statement by HR/VP Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius

Upcoming initiatives for the protection of the ocean:

Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean

On World Ocean Day the UN, with the support of Oceanic Global and La Mer, is hosting an event to shed light on the communities, ideas, and solutions that are working together to protect and revitalize the ocean and everything it sustains, featuring thought-leaders, celebrities, institutional partners, community voices, entrepreneurs, and cross-industry experts as they delve into key topics and work to both inspire and ignite collaborative change.

Setting the course for a sustainable blue planet

In the coming weeks the EU will publish an updated Joint Communication on the EU’s International Ocean Governance Agenda, ‘Setting the course for a sustainable blue planet’.

International ocean governance strives to address the many challenges stemming from the ocean’s multidimensional and interconnected role. In 2016, the European Union was the first leading economy to launch its International Ocean Governance Agenda and commit to a safe, secure, clean, healthy and sustainably managed ocean. While the EU remains steadfast, several developments since then justify an updated Joint Communication.

1. Fighting climate change and environmental degradation are among top EU political priorities with the ocean embedded in the European Green Deal and the vision for a stronger Europe in the world, and considered a global issue requiring a multilateral response.
2. The decline of the ocean is accelerating as unsustainable human activities and their harmful impacts continue to degrade the ocean leading to profound changes with the risk of reaching tipping points.
3. The ocean is amongst the world’s foremost geopolitical arenas as shown by the recent increase in tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the South China Sea, with Member States calling for respecting territorial integrity and navigational rights as well as for a peaceful dispute settlement. Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine is affecting the global stability and the security of the Black Sea region and is raising concerns about its maritime implications.
4. The ocean has gained political traction also at the global level and 2022 is a pivotal year for the ocean with a number of key negotiations and ocean conferences. The ocean has also become more prominent in international debates on climate and biodiversity.

Save our Ocean, Protect our Future

The EU will participate in the UN Ocean Conference, co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, that will take place between 27 June to 1 July. This comes at a critical time as the world is seeking to address many of the deep-rooted problems of our societies laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic and which will require major structural transformations and common shared solutions that are anchored in the SDGs. To mobilize action, the Conference will seek to propel much needed science-based innovative solutions aimed at starting a new chapter of global ocean action.

Clean-up actions

World Coastal Clean-up Day is the largest clean-up drive for beaches and coastlines across the globe. This initiative takes place annually on the third Saturday of September. To mark World Coastal Clean-up Day, every year the EU together with the UN organises a global clean-up initiative to protect the ocean. Learn more here.