Initiatives have been developed to improve knowledge of the ocean and the changes it is undergoing as a result of human activities. These include the World Ocean Assessment (WOA) led by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS), the Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development led by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy supported by a coalition of 14 states, and the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere.

These initiatives show the need for ocean sciences to emerge in the field of sustainable development sciences, in coordination with climate and biodiversity. Collective expertise and the evaluation of possible ocean evolution trajectories, based on shared action scenarios, are essential to inform decisions and build governance that meets the challenges of both the uses and the health of the ocean.

The IPOC would enable the articulation and coordination of fragmented actions, the saving of energy dispersed around various axes or conventions and the production of widely accessible global syntheses. It would allow for more effective synthetic work and a better response to the questions of decision-makers and civil society, as well as better visibility of the work carried out.

A first international symposium laid the IPOC foundations in 2021 during the Monaco Ocean Week. We call today for the creation of an international working group in charge of proposing the conditions for its implementation, by including it in the strategy of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development.

As a decision-making tool for strengthening the sustainability of the Ocean, the IPOC is at the service of the SDG14: the UN Ocean conference in Lisbon in June would be the natural place for its consecration.