The first meeting for the preparatory work group of the SEA’TIE, an ocean & climate platform under the Ocean Decade Programme, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, was recently held virtually. Qingdao has been invited to join the preparatory work group and become Asia’s sole city to be included among the 11 founding cities of the platform.

The SEA’TIES Initiative aims to involve coastal cities around the globe into the Ocean Decade Programme through concerted efforts in design and implementation of marine science actions. The platform is scheduled to be launched in the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference, which will take place in Barcelona, Spain in April 2024.

The Ocean Decade is an important maritime initiative launched by the UN. This year, China’s only Ocean Decade International Cooperation Center has been located in Qingdao, and Asia’s sole Ocean Decade Collaborative Center on Ocean-Climate Nexus and Coordination has been put into operation in Qingdao.  (Li Xunxiang)