Making Waves: Norway’s Support for a Sustainable Ocean. Ocean report 2020.

Making Waves: Norwegian support for a sustainable ocean – Ocean Report 2020

Without a healthy and productive ocean, it will not be possible to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. More than three billion people globally depend on the ocean for their livelihoods. Roughly 90 percent of world trade is transported over the ocean. The oceans play a vital role in the efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. With the expected population growth and the corresponding need for more resources, the ocean will play an increasingly important part in meeting these needs, especially in terms of food security.

But the ocean is under threat from human activities. The combination of climate change, loss of marine biodiversity, overexploitation of resources and pollution, including plastics, has led to a critical situation. To fully take advantage of the vast resources the ocean can offer, it must be managed in a sustainable manner.

In 2017 the Government presented a white paper on oceans in foreign and development policy. The Ocean White Paper has three priority areas: sustainable use and value creation, clean and healthy oceans, and a sustainable blue economy in development policy. Later, in 2018 the Prime Minster launched an international High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy consisting of 14 heads of states. Through knowledge programmes, such as the Oceans for Development and Fish for Development programmes, as well as a wide range of other programmes and initiatives in Norad and in other Norwegian institutions, the ambition is that Norwegian ocean-related development assistance will contribute to a healthy marine environment and a sustainable ocean economy that the world can live off. This report shows how these programmes, amongst others, supports the Ocean Panel’s recommendations and the White Paper.

The Ocean Report 2020 presents an overview of Norway’s ocean-related development assistance in 2020, the results of this work, and suggest areas of further development. The report emphasizes the breadth of Norwegian ocean-related development assistance, and presents work within the programmes Oceans for Development, Fish for Development, the Development Programme to Combat Marine Litter and Microplastics, Food from the Oceans initiative, the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED), Green Voyage, Blue Justice, as well as projects with civil society and the private sector. This covers topics from combating illegal fishing to green shipping to marine pollution and beyond.

This is the first Ocean Report to be published on an annual basis to show progress and the development of Norwegian ocean-related development assistance.