Vidar Helgesen, head of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, is at the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB) The year 2023 has been the warmest in history. Europe is warming twice as fast as the world average and the Arctic four times as fast.
High temperatures are promoting fish migrations in coastal areas where they did not occur before and depend on fishing, he says. The Ocean Decade Conference seeks to make the world's seas clean, healthy and resilient using science as a fundamental pillar, says Helgeson, who has served as Minister of Environment and Climate in Norway and has been director general of the Nobel Foundation Organization. "We cannot escape the rapid effects of climate change on the oceans. We have to rescue them because we need them to save the planet," he says, adding that we need a system capable of controlling in real time what happens in the seas with temperature, biodiversity, overfishing and garbage. "New technologies are necessary to make it easier because it can be observed by satellite, GPS systems, drones... But it is also necessary to have the ability to intervene in what is happening and demand responsibility for breaking the law," he adds.