the programme

Impact Keynote

Speakers : Jennifer Nordquist (World Trade Organization – Deputy Director General)

PANEL 1 – The Ocean agenda after 2025: Staying the course, breaking the gridlock

• The session will unpack how the 2025 international milestones have reconfigured the ocean governance architecture, with a focus on what is materially changing for implementation across institutions, sectors and geographies. 
• It will critically examine where political alignment and financial flows are genuinely accelerating, and where systemic inertia, fragmented mandates or geopolitical tensions continue to constrain progress. 
• The discussion will aim to delineate a credible course of action towards 2030, identifying priority leverage points in a landscape increasingly shaped by competing global agendas.

Speakers : Pascal Lamy (Europe Jacques Delors Institute – CEO), Vincent Pieribone (Ocean X – Co-CEO and Chief Science Officer), Karen Sack (ORRAA – CEO)

Political keynote

Speakers :  Sofjan Jaupaj (Government of Albania – Minister of Environment), His Excellency Minister of the Sea  Jorge Santos (Republic of Cabo Verde)

Panel 2 – Governing and financing the ocean in a fragmented world

• The panel will explore how overlapping and sometimes inconsistent governance frameworks are translating into operational constraints or opportunities for both public authorities and private investors. 
• It will assess how regulatory uncertainty and geopolitical fragmentation are being priced into investment decisions, affecting capital allocation, risk management and long-term planning across ocean sectors. 
• Particular attention will be given to high-exposure geographies and ecosystems, where governance gaps intersect with acute climate and biodiversity pressures, requiring more targeted and coordinated responses.

Speakers : Valerie Hickey (World Bank – Group Director for Environment), Pavan Sukhdev (GIST Impact – CEO), Ourèye Sakho Eklo (West African Development Bank – Senior VP), Sylvie Goulard (International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits – Co-Chair)

Keynote update

Speakers :  Wallace Cosgrow (Principal Minister and Minister for Fisheries, Agriculture and the Blue Economy – The Republic of Seychelles),  Hon Arvin Boolell, G.O.S.K (Minister of Agro-Industry, Food Security, Blue Economy and Fisheries – The Republic of Mauritius)

Panel 3 – High Seas: The BBNJ agreement faces the test of implementation

• The discussion will take stock of the immediate implications of the BBNJ Agreement’s entry into force, with a focus on the institutional, legal and operational steps required ahead of COP1. 
• It will examine how to structure the end-to-end process of high seas MPA designation and management, from scientific identification to governance arrangements and sustainable financing mechanisms. 
• The session will also address implementation risks, including political deadlock and capacity gaps, while exploring the enabling role of advanced data systems, monitoring technologies and emerging tools. 

Speakers : Kristian Teleki (Fauna & Flora – CEO), Minna Epps (IUCN – Global Ocean Policy Director), Torsten Thiele (Global Ocean Trust – Founder & Executive Director), Harriet Harden-Davies (The University of Edinburgh – Director of the Nippon Foundation-University of Edinburgh Ocean Voices Programme)

Thematic workshops on BBNJ: from agreement to implementation

These workshops will focus on the implementation challenges of the BBNJ Agreement in the lead-up to its first Conference of the Parties (“Ocean COP 1”), scheduled for January 2027.

The objective is to examine, in a concrete and operational manner, the implications of the Agreement’s entry into force for each category of stakeholders — States Parties, regional organizations, the private sector, the scientific community, and civil society — in terms of rights, obligations, and capacities to be mobilized. Particular attention will be given to the designation and management of high seas Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as the first full-scale test of the newly established framework.

While the latest PrepCom meeting (April 2026) delivered progress across several workstreams, key structural issues remain unresolved ahead of COP 1: operationalizing the financial mechanism, defining protected area boundaries and addressing overlaps of jurisdiction, establishing governance arrangements for high seas MPAs, and ensuring coherence with existing sectoral and regional bodies. The challenge now is to move beyond declaratory commitments and build a robust operational framework — one in which MPAs are supported by binding management measures, reliable data systems, and predictable financing mechanisms, all of which are essential to ensure that these protected areas do not remain merely symbolic.

Organized in small multidisciplinary working groups, these workshops will adopt a focused, technical, and operational format. States and negotiators, scientists, financial actors and private sector representatives, NGOs, and civil society stakeholders will each contribute their specific expertise to identify concrete implementation barriers and develop actionable solutions around key thematic priorities.

Topics to be addressed (subject to change) :

• The role of technology, data, and artificial intelligence
• Impacts and adaptation for the private sector
• The high seas and deep seabed ecosystems
• BBNJ in the Mediterranean
• Priority areas and science-based approaches
• Lessons learned from other international agreements
• Implementation, compliance, and enforcement
• Financing the Agreement

Closing Session

• Political Keynote
• Workshop wrap up in a fireside-style on-stage discussion between the moderators.