Norway is hosting the Our Ocean conference on 23 and 24 October, according to a government press release.

Voluntary obligations are the core of the Our Ocean conferences. Authorities, business and civil society present obligations in the six areas of climate, marine pollution, ocean protection, sustainable fisheries, maritime security and blue economy.

- This is a valuable addition to other major ocean and climate summiets, such as the blue climate summit in Chile in December and the UN ocean conference in Portugal in 2020. At these conferences, states are the prime actors, while Our Ocean rather is an arena in which authorities, civil society, business and knowledge communities meet on equal ground, says Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide.

The first-ever Our Ocean event took place in the USA in 2014, with then-American Foreign Minister John Kerry as the driving force. 500 well-known politicians, business leaders and civil society representatives are expected to attend the conference.