Date/Time
Date(s) - 14/11/2020
12:00 - 14:00

Location
Barclays Bank Coventry

Categories

• Climate Change
• Oceans

Saturday 14th November, Warwick District UNA will host a video conference of a talk by Marine Biologist and Oceanographer Gonzalo Alvarez.

Gonzalo is a Marine Biologist and Oceanographer and has been part of a Scientific research team on Climate and Oceans in the South Pacific (UN Development Programme (UNDP) early 1990s). He has led International Teams regarding Community Projects in Coastal Communities in Latin America and the Caribbean (1992 – 2001). During that time, he was also a member of International Human Development Forums in New York, London, Singapore, Wales, Jerusalem, Chile, Cuba, and Argentina.

Join the meeting at

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82536330888?pwd=RjZHVXdmWGhjRjVjN1JQWmFKL2pjZz09

In 2018 and 2019 Gonzalo Alvarez was Co-Chair of the Ocean Symposium in Hastings (St Mary in the Castle), Co-Chair of the Ocean Symposium at the Centre for Aquatic Environments, University of Brighton, as well as Chairman of the Sustainability on Sea Symposium in 2019 at Hastings Museum, and he has been Chairman of the different Teams organising important Scientific events. In 2020 he was appointed as Chairman of the United Nations Association Climate and Oceans. Gonzalo has qualifications from the University of Cambridge (2000) Universidad de Concepción (Chile) (1989), Middlesex University (2004) and has further studies on Management at the London School of Economics (2010).

More recently he has done further Scientific Studies with The Open University (2020). Between 2005 and 2007 he was a Lecturer in Bioethics at Universidad del Mar, Chile. Gonzalo is also a member of the Sussex Marine and Coastal Forum where he interacts frequently with different UK Government Agencies, Universities and regional NGOs providing intelligence about the UN and Global Affairs.

In light of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and growing public health concerns, the United Nations Ocean Conference, which was scheduled to take place from 2 to 6 June 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal, was postponed per decision 74/548 adopted by the General Assembly on Monday, 13 April 2020. Co-hosts of the Conference Kenya and Portugal in consultation with the General Assembly will decide on possible future dates for the Conference, including timelines for the preparatory process.

Billions of people depend on the ocean for their main source of protein and millions of others draw their livelihood from the seas. Major economic activities, such as tourism, fisheries and trade, depend on a healthy ocean. The ocean is the primary regulator of the global climate. It supplies half the oxygen we breathe and absorbs a third of the carbon dioxide we produce. People also matter to the ocean and can play a significant role in safeguarding its health and sustainability. Climate change, for instance, continues to lead to, among others, rising sea levels, warming, de-oxygenation and an increase in extreme weather events that directly threaten the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities, especially in Small Island Developing States.

The forthcoming UN Ocean Conference hopefully to be announced in 2021 will play an important role in putting in place a new chapter of ocean action – one that is driven by science, technology and innovation. It will also underscore the need to harness nature-based solutions including restoration and conservation of mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows, known to have major climate mitigation and adaptation potential. The Conference will take stock of progress and bring together world leaders, scientists, the business community, change-makers and activists to join forces to inspire, create and invest in solutions.

Also the UN will launch the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development in 2021, and the UN Ocean Conference is part of that. UNESCO and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission will be implementing the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development by 2030.