Statement of the IAI at Partnership Dialogue 6 - UN Ocean Conference

Ocean warming alters the atmosphere, raises sea level, enhances vertical stratification and changes the marine ecosystem. Today’s changes in the ocean will continue to impact the global climate, ecosystem functioning and services in future decades to centuries.

To accurately project the future evolution of the ocean requires the development of models that can reproduce the variability at regional and decadal scales, and the establishment and maintenance of observational networks capable of detecting physical, chemical and biological changes.

One of the guiding questions suggested for this dialogue is how partnerships can help the international community enhance understanding of the functioning of the ocean and its interactions. To answer that, we must acknowledge that ocean currents and species have no geopolitical boundaries. Their understanding can only be achieved by fostering international collaboration, technology transfer, and improving the capacity of countries to conduct regional ocean observations and monitoring.

Strong international collaborations are an integral part of the mission that guides the IAI. As a regional intergovernmental organization of nineteen member countries in the Americas, IAI fosters and funds collaborative, interdisciplinary research networks required by decision makers to address critical trans-boundary issues associated with global change.

Our funded research programs have played a key role in enhancing regional scientific capacity. IAI synthesizes knowledge generated by its research networks, convenes science-policy dialogues, and identifies knowledge gaps. We strive to provide guidance to decision makers and stakeholders at all levels.

In my own IAI research network, we successfully collaborated between Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and the USA. This bottom-up collaboration helped to build confidence across boundaries and disciplines, paving the way to strong international collaborations at the institutional level.

The UN Ocean Conference will result in a call for action that will be formally adopted tomorrow. In it, governments will stress the need to further increase marine scientific research to inform and support decision-making, to promote knowledge hubs and networks, to enhance the sharing of scientific data, best practices, and know-how.

At IAI we stand ready to work with you and share our scientific knowledge. We invite governments and stakeholders to join forces with IAI to foster international collaboration and continue providing high quality science-based knowledge demanded to make the right decisions for our ocean planet. The ocean is the memory of climate and we have the unique opportunity and obligation to make decisions that will lead to the well-being of future generations. This will be our most significant legacy.