The 10th Our Ocean Conference (28-30 April 2025) in Busan, South Korea, came to a close with the confirmation that 277 new commitments to sustainable ocean action have been mobilised, equivalent to US$ 9.1 billion.
Commitments were made by more than 60 different countries and organisations across six key ocean action areas: Ocean Climate
The Republic of Korea announced “digital oceans” as the priority cross-cutting theme, placing a special emphasis on exploring how digital technology is driving new ocean actions and discussing international cooperation to accelerate these advancements. Nearly 10% of OOC10 commitments address this theme, ranging from the use of AI to monitor fisheries and marine protected areas, to enhancing satellite and drone imagery, and deploying eDNA techniques that can help better catalogue marine biodiversity.
Developing the sustainable blue economy was highlighted as a key priority for the global ocean community, generating the highest single financial commitment of any action area by far – $4.5 billion – and the second-highest overall number of commitments (59). From supporting ocean entrepreneurship and developing businesses, developing blue economy frameworks, and enhancing sustainable small-scale fisheries and aquaculture operations, to deploying digital technologies that can support economic development, blue economy commitments were diverse in scope and scale.
Investment in research and development was a clear priority for OOC10 commitment makers, with over 30 commitments related to funding for research that will improve understanding of the ocean-climate nexus, polar regions, fisheries, biodiversity, marine pollution, emerging technologies, and more.
A notable number of commitments were announced for the financing of marine nature-based climate solutions – nearly $150 million in finance – with work focusing on restoring and better enhancing coastal blue carbon ecosystems such as kelp forests.
This year’s conference generated a wide variety of capacity-building commitments across six OOC action areas, including nearly 20 commitments focused on improving maritime security capacity and counter-IUU fishing efforts around the world (predominantly in the Pacific and West Africa), and more than 10 commitments that establish or expand marine and environmental education or career training programmes.
At OOC10, over 45 commitments focused on identifying and assessing new sites for future marine protected areas (MPAs), expansion and improvement of management of existing MPAs, and new protections for key habitats such as turtle nesting grounds.
Since its inaugural meeting in 2014, OOC has become a leading platform for governments, businesses and civil society to make commitments advancing marine conservation, ocean-based climate solutions and sustainable blue economy initiatives. This will add to the $160 billion mobilised over the past decade.
