The Monaco Blue Initiative meeting has officially opened proceedings at Monaco Ocean Week 2024 and brought together decision-makers and players from the worlds of government and ocean conservation with the goal of finding solutions to the challenges facing the seas. Monaco’s Prince Albert II took an active role at the event and led an inspiring keynote speech, declaring, “We are no longer powerless in the face of the degradation of our planet.”  

Held on 17th and 18th March at the Musée Océanographique de Monaco, the 15th edition of the Monaco Blue Initiative saw government representatives, international organisations, members of civil society and the private sector, NGOs, the scientific community and the media meet to discuss co-operative ways to both preserve the oceans and promote the Blue Economy.  

See more: Monaco to host Blue Economy and Finance Forum as part of 2025 UN Ocean Conference

Recommendations from these meetings have traditionally been taken away and run up the flagpoles of various international high-level gatherings, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the negotiations on Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction and the International Marine Protected Areas Congress. It is hoped that this most recent edition will garner similar respect.  

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Co-hosted by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation (FPA2) and the Musée Océanographique de Monaco, with the support of Rolex and Indosuez Wealth Management, the conference tackled the most serious issues facing the oceans of today.  

At the top of the agenda were ocean protection and governance, goals for the upcoming decade, the Blue Economy and the role of the private sector, as well as the role of the Mediterranean in achieving 30×30, the worldwide initiative for governments to designate 30% of Earth’s land and oceans as protected areas by the year 2030.  

Prince Albert opened the event with affirmative words of action that clearly resonated with the international audience.  

“We are no longer powerless in the face of the degradation of our planet,” he said. “We have the knowledge gained from our experience, new tools and greater resources. It is this knowledge, these tools, and these resources we will be talking about. We will be doing so by examining the prospects offered by the Blue Economy and through it, the role of the private sector in ocean protection. We will be doing so when discussing the protection of the Mediterranean Sea and the achievement of the 30×30 target, and when looking at the more specific challenge of a future treaty to combat plastic and the strict regulation of deep-sea mineral exploration.” 

Other top-level speakers included: Olivier Wenden, CEO of the FPA2; Robert Calcagno, CEO of the Oceanographic Institute; Jean-François Ferrari, the Seychelles Minister for Fisheries and the Blue Economy; and Charlina Vitcheva, the Director General for the European Commission’s Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, who said, “We need public investments to address the scope, but we need private investment to reach the scale.” 

Monaco Ocean Week will continue with a busy programme of thought-provoking conferences and events until 22nd March.  

For more information, click here. 

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Photo credit: JC Vinaj / Olivier Huitel, FPA2