The United Nations have declared the upcoming ten years 2021-2030 a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Decade will provide a platform and a framework for the nations to achieve "The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want".
Currently the Decade is in its planning phase with a kick-off scheduled in 2021 and in this special session during the MARESEDU conference we want to explore what do main goals of the Decade mean for the audience and try to identify capacities to contribute to delivering the key societal outcomes formulated by The United Nations:

We would also like to draw special attention to the Arctic Region. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Polar Regions are of enormous importance for the Earth's climatic stability and hold the key to understanding fundamental Earth system processes. With this in mind, in our break-out sessions we are encouraging topics and discussions related to the Arctic Region.

Special session on the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development will include key-note presentations introducing (1) main societal outcomes, vision and timeline of the Decade; (2) the development of the Regional Arctic Ocean Decade Action Plan; and (3) Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks, followed by discussions in break-out groups where participants will have a pre-set list of questions to address and reflect on.
Each group will be focusing on one of the seven key societal outcomes of the Decade and their implementation in a context of the Arctic region. We will ask each group to nominate a rapporteur to take notes of the discussion, and a group leader to report highlights of the discussion back to the session.

For the latest Ocean Decade Implementation plan please follow the link - In Russian; In English.