Assessing the environmental, social and economic dimensions of ocean sustainability at global scale: can we do better?

Global sustainability targets provide a collective lighthouse to guide societal choices and policy making towards sustainability. Global Environmental Assessments (GEAs) and other Global Assessments (GAs) play a crucial role in synthesizing knowledge on the state of the ocean, climate and biodiversity and on their connections with society that can inform policy decisions towards achieving these targets. In order to investigate the extent and depth of this evidence base to support ocean sustainability decisions across scales, two studies systematically assessed the presence, quality, range and effective transmission of environmental, social and economic ocean knowledge in over 40 GEAs/GAs and processes. Results revealed that ocean knowledge: is fragmented and dispersed; lacks holistic perspectives; does not equitably address the three pillars of ocean sustainability; nor account for all knowledge types. Interviews, wide consultation and workshops with actors at the science-policy-society interface demonstrated: (i) a strong demand for co-created knowledge that equitably addresses social, economic, and cultural values at ecosystem and ocean challenge-relevant scales; (iii) a lack of efficient and effective transmission of knowledge into actionable policies; (iii) the need for, and added-value of, an additional global mechanism at the science-policy-society interface, such as an International Platform for Ocean Sustainability,  to deliver sound contextually-relevant knowledge that can support actionable solutions and pathways to reach SDGs and other global targets. The process helped identify conditions required to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of this new additional mechanism, including partnerships with existing global platforms, civil society, private sector, and local and indigenous networks.