GoodGeist
A podcast on sustainability, hosted by Damla Özlüer and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network. Looking at sustainability issues, communications, and featuring global guests from a wide variety of sectors such as business, NGOs and government.
GoodGeist
Healthy Oceans for our Future, with Sigi Gruber
At last - we're covering the life aquatic on GoodGeist! How are our oceans critical to our survival and what can we do to protect them? Join us on as we unravel these essential questions with Sigi Gruber, the former head of the Healthy Ocean and Seas Unit at the European Commission.
Sigi brings to light some shocking statistics, like the staggering 12 million metric tons of plastic dumped into our oceans annually, and explains the extraordinary contributions of coral reefs, sea grass, and mangroves in sustaining life on Earth.
We also talk with Sigi about the European Union’s bold initiatives for maritime and aquatic sustainability, including the ambitious 'Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030' Moonshot Mission, and we cover the Mediterranean's unique challenges and successes, such as the impactful Blue Med Initiative.
Have a listen now!
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Good Geist, a podcast series on sustainability hosted by Damla Özler and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone, you are listening to Good Guys, the message on sustainability which is brought to you by the DNS Network, the global network of agencies dedicated to making the world a better place. This is Damla from Mira Agency, istanbul, and this is Steve from Creative Concern in Manchester.
Speaker 3:This podcast series explores global sustainability issues, how they're communicated and what creativity can do to make positive change happen.
Speaker 2:So in this episode, we're going to talk to Siggy Graber, former head of the Healthy Ocean and Seas Unit in the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. Okay, I got that part right and I'm going on. During her decades with the Commission, she has worked to implement and monitor research and innovation strategies to support the European Union's marine and maritime related policies, such as the integrated maritime policy, blue economy agenda and the different sea basin strategies and there are a lot of it, so I will just state these three. This unit coordinated and implemented together with the EU member states and international partner countries like the Blue Med Initiative and the All-Atlantic, All-Ocean Research Alliance and the Blue Growth Cause of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. Wow, Steve, now it's your turn.
Speaker 3:I know Well. Unfortunately, I think Siggy's biography is so extensive and massive we may only have four minutes of chat and 20 minutes of intro. Yeah, anyway, but Siggy, I mean we're you worked on restoring our ocean and water 2030 program, the UN decade for ocean science, shape the ocean, and she sees related parts of horizon Europe, which I'm a big fan of, horizon Europe because we're back in it in the UK, which is brilliant news. Um, and you're currently still working, aren't you? As a senior advisor. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk to Damla and myself. Thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for having me here with you, because I'm very excited to share with you some of my passion and hopefully to convince you that you cannot talk about sustainability if you are not going to talk about a healthy ocean going to talk about a healthy ocean.
Speaker 2:Well, sigi, we are so excited and your passion is all over your voice. So we always want to have a little bit of background, because we know that prior to the European Commission, you have worked in the public sector in Italy and Germany, and then, after 1991, you started working in the Commission.
Speaker 4:But how did the oceans capture you and you decided to dedicate your life to healthy oceans well, it was actually when I was responsible for international cooperation with all americas when my hierarchy asked me to look into the opportunities of launching a big initiative with Canada, the United States, also later on Brazil and South Africa, and to take the Atlantic Ocean as a shared resource. So this was the beginning of my deep dive into the unknown blues and captured not only my enthusiasm but also my interest and my passion. And I'm talking to you here now, not as commission official, but I talk really on my personal capacity.
Speaker 3:Wonderful. So, sigi, you've already mentioned it and you mentioned it in preparation for this session, which is, you said, you know we can't talk about sustainability until unless we talk about oceans. So you're ready, I'm going to pull the plug out and you're going to be able to talk about all of this. Can you draw us a picture of the role of oceans in our wider ecosystem and why they matter so much?
Speaker 4:of course. So, first of all and you this might surprise you we all depend on the ocean, and let me explain why. And maybe let me allow me to take a quote from sylvia earl, who is the great hero of the ocean. She said with every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you are connected to the sea, no matter where on earth you live. And ocean ecosystems form the basis for global economies, local livelihoods, food security and nutrition, climate adaptation and mitigation. Our rainwater, our drinking water, our weather, our climate, our coastlines they are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea and the ocean. So, in my view, it's no question caring for the seas and the ocean. So, in my view, it's no question, caring for the seas and the ocean is essential if you really want to ensure a sustainable future. Let me give you a couple of figures so that I can better explain, or the facts can better explain.
Speaker 4:80% of the world's sewage is dumped into the ocean and treated. About 12 million metric tons of plastic, and probably more, are dumped every year into the ocean. 14,000 tons of sunscreen are washed into the ocean annually. And think about it it just takes one drop of bad sunscreen to decimate an entire coral reef. Coral reefs cover only 0.1% of the ocean bed and yet they sustain 25% of marine life, and coral reefs are crucial to 2 billion people.
Speaker 4:The ocean produces 50% of the oxygen we breathe. Did you know that Sea grass, kelp, seaweed and mangrove sequester about 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions generated by human activity? And it helps mitigate the impact of climate change caused by greenhouse gases? And, last but not least, the ocean captures 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions and with the great heat waves that we experienced also lately, this is really crucial. And one last important thing Recent research also shows that this research was partially also conducted in the UK in the Blimhoff Institute that health of the ocean is directly linked to the health of humans, is directly linked to the health of humans. A healthy ocean and its biodiversity can offer critical benefits to all people, such as new medicines, technology, nutritious and sustainable diets also for vegans, if you think of the algae and opportunities to bolster physical and mental well-being. So, and yet we plunder it, we pollute it, we poison it and we abuse it.
Speaker 2:And we don't talk about it. That is wonderful. That is wonderful, I mean, sigi, the numbers you've shared is really striking and, as it's always the case in sustainability, everything is woven into another. But the oceans are the big part of this patchwork, I imagine. But do you think that we handle this topic enough in general sustainability conversation, and even with those shiny concepts like blue growth, blue economy, does this field get enough funds to bloom? Absolutely.
Speaker 4:First of all, the IPCC. You know the International Panel for Climate Change. The Sixth Assessment Report really highlights the potential of the ocean by developing sustainable new economies and what they can do really to build prosperity and improve lives for all, including for really marginalized communities. However, and really let me stress this, the state and importance of the ocean ranks low on most global agendas. At many sustainability summits, at the COPS for example, the ocean remains sidelined, massively absent, unheard, unseen. It's simply ignored. So the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, which is life under the water, is the least funded of all. Recent reports suggest that $175 billion per year are needed to achieve sustainable development goal for a team by 2030. And yet between 2015 and 2019, just below $10 billion have actually been invested. So I think the figures really they talk for themselves. And this even though the Sustainable Development Goal 14 is something which is interconnected with so many others SDGs, with zero hunger, with climate change, etc. Etc. So this is something which I think needs to be radically changed.
Speaker 3:So, siggy, and thank you for pointing out that vegans benefit hugely from the ocean. I'm pleased to report and it was completely unintentional there were roasted kelp strips in my noodle soup at lunchtime, so I've I've partaken of the bounty of the sea today. I'm quite proud of that, absolutely so. One of the things that I love about talk I love to talk about sustainable development rather than pure environmentalism is that it doesn't slam the door shut on economic growth, which can completely stop winning any kind of investment in the critical issues that we all care so much about, and so the blue growth strategy that you're talking about is really fascinating. I now consider it alongside circular economy, and green growth is one of those things I'm really fascinated in. Could you unpack blue growth and the blue economy a little more for us and what it looks like, because it's going to be a phrase that's new to people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, even though it has been around now for some time. But let me go back and really focus a little bit on what the European Commission has been doing and also put it in a wider context. Recall that healthy oceans are of great economic and well-being importance, so they cover really both aspects that you just mentioned. In 2022, the European Commission so they cover really both aspects that you just mentioned close to 4.4 for the half million people and generated around 667 billion in turnover and almost 184 billion euros in gross value added. So there is really as well potential, even though we had covid in between, etc. But now I think it's really going to back on track and in 21, the european commission launched a political strategic document which is called the new au blue economy strategy, and it really integrates ocean policies into Europe's new economic policy, which was as well governed by the European Green Deal, and it plays really a major role in implementing the European Green Deal. It's putting the blue into the green, as this has been often quoted, and this political document started from the primaries that the dualism between environmental protection and economy is not of use today anymore, and hence it proposed a paradigm shift from blue growth to a sustainable blue economy. But for this shift to happen, economic activities at sea and in coastal areas need to reduce their cumulative impacts on the marine environment and the value change as well, need to transform themselves to contribute to climate neutrality. Well, need to transform themselves to contribute to climate neutrality, which is one of the big EU objectives, to zero pollution, to the circular economy, to waste prevention, marine biodiversity, coastal resilience and responsible food systems. Because you wanted also to know how is all this interlinked? So it is interconnected with all the different strategies on land and in the marine world.
Speaker 4:The EU also allocated a lot of funds. So on the one side, it's the European Maritime, aquaculture and Fishery Funds, but it's also Horizon Europe, which is the major, really, eu framework program for research and innovation, who underpinned this strategy with the development of new technologies. And within that context, the EU also launched a new mission the Moonshot mission Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030. And we might come back to that afterwards, but let me, if I have two minutes.
Speaker 4:There has been a new development now and the concept has developed. It has developed actually, it has been pushed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, who came up with the new regenerative blue economy and you might be very interested in this. There are many different definitions depending on the countries and regions, and there hasn't been really a set of guiding principles. And there hasn't been really a set of guiding principles, but the blue economy related work should really be seen. That's what the IUC is putting forward through the prism of conservation and sustainable development in all regions across the globe, and it states that, in light of the triple planetary crisis biodiversity, pollution, carbon the challenges that our ocean faces is really that we find ourselves in need for more than just sustainability. We need regeneration, and that is why this new, coined regenerative blue economy is now taking place Discussions around that are taking place in many new settings.
Speaker 2:Well, you got me on putting blue to the green because, as a Mediterranean, blue and green just runs through my veins. I know that. But speaking of which, I would like to ask you you were very involved with the EU sea basins and, of course, being the most vulnerable to the climate crisis. The Mediterranean spans over very different countries and cultures and sometimes conflicting agendas different countries and cultures and sometimes conflicting agendas how the coordination efforts are affected by this and how those different agendas can be mitigated to come up with a collaborative response to the climate crisis.
Speaker 4:Yeah, first of all, you might have heard about the notion of science diplomacy, and science diplomacy is a very powerful instrument which brings together people when it comes really to look at what solutions can be found to help prosperity, well-being, growth in coastal communities. And it really spans, there are no boundaries, it spans over different countries. This has been the underlying principle, certainly for when we launched the Blue Med Initiative 10 years ago 10 years now, my God for really to develop a shared vision for a more healthy, a more productive, a more resilient, a better known and better valued Mediterranean Sea. So the Mare Nostrum you know this notion that we all know from Latin. It's really promoting it from its citizens. It's the well-being and the prosperity, together with economic growth and jobs, because that, particularly in the Mediterranean, is also a big issue. So this was a bottom-up and a top-down initiative in the sense that top-down, the European Commission asked the different governments to nominate representatives. Bottom up, because those representatives were really tasked by bringing together in the different countries, mapping out what exists, what doesn't exist, what is needed and how can really the pooling of capital, knowledge, enthusiasm and engagement be pulled together to develop and co-create altogether a joint research and innovation agenda.
Speaker 4:So this happened very successfully and in 2018, because the Mediterranean is the most polluted sea per square kilometres by plastic in the sea in the world so it was decided actually to launch a pilot initiative for a plastic-free Mediterranean and this was fantastic because people really got their act together and a little bit, it led its way by trying to map all the existing initiatives, by funding new initiatives to substitute plastic, bio-based plastic, to find new ways of waste management, etc.
Speaker 4:Raising awareness in schools and in households, which is also very important about waste management and reuse of plastic. So this led to what is called the Lighthouse Initiative of the European Mission. It's still continuous. It's the Mediterranean Lighthouse continuous. It's the Mediterranean Lighthouse and the mission and I invite anyone who would like to know more about these European missions to go on Google and Google it it's to restore our ocean and waters by 2030 with its Mediterranean Lighthouse, which has the really fantastic goal to reduce by at least 50% plastic litter at sea and to reduce at least 30% microplastics released into the environment and to reduce by at least 50% nutrient losses. So if that by 2030 is going to be achieved, I think we can all be happy.
Speaker 3:Well, we like the prospect of happiness and optimism alongside a big dose of reality, siggy, so thank you for that. So last but one question from me is just to bring us up, to speed up to today on the Mediterranean, and just your thoughts, I think, on the really contemporary pressures that are felt on the Mediterranean, for example, energy, energy exploration countries that want to exploit our oceans for energy, and actually it's currently a zone of conflict as well, isn't it? So there are very new pressures on the Mediterranean, and how does that factor into where we go next?
Speaker 4:Yeah, let me tackle this question a little bit from a more political point of view as well. So in recent weeks you might have seen that the European Commissioner, president Ursula von der Leyen, announced the appointment of a new commissioner for the Mediterranean, which is quite an important statement, and NATO appointed the Spanish diplomat, javier Colomina, to the role of envoy for the Mediterranean. So the Italian government has relaunched its commitment to the region through new partnerships and initiatives, such as the Rome Process and the Mate Plan for Africa. The G7 countries, in their final communiqué and in the work of the G7s in the parliaments, also highlighted the geopolitical importance of the Mediterranean regions. I mean, this doesn't surprise us, but it is a really new, very important dimension.
Speaker 4:But one condition which will certainly determine any new form of cooperation is the need to build resilience to climate impacts.
Speaker 4:It's the need as well.
Speaker 4:This is connected to overcoming development models, cooperation models linked to fossil fuels, and strengthening. That's why we need to strengthen energy cooperation with a view to a fair transition to renewables, which is not easy, and we can see the impact and the alignment needed between the climate change impacts and the energy crisis, change impacts and the energy crisis. And yet we know that new contracts have actually been stipulated for gas, but okay, that's another issue. And because climate change impacts not only on the energy but on so many economic sectors, it is extremely important that this is taken up in a holistic way, in a systemic way, so that all the different sectors agriculture, fisheries, tourism are looked up in how they impact on each other and what can be done. How they impact on each other and what can be done, because if this is not done, we know very well that in turn, it can trigger migration, radicalization and new conflicts, and so it has really a very negative cascading effect. But for that we do need new models of cooperation. So the alignment of climate and energy policies.
Speaker 2:Well, ziggy, I'm amazed by your talent to take those big, big questions and teams and getting the rose and duck and just making them compact and just conveying everything in a very understandable manner. I'm really, really amazed by it and thank you, this episode was like a lesson for me. I mean, I'm lectured, I feel like that. Thank you very much. So, final question Our network is ironically called Do Not Smile, because we need to make the sustainability a subject that brings happiness into the world. So what object, place or person always make you smile?
Speaker 4:Well, first of all, your slogan makes me smile. Sorry for saying that Do not smile makes me smile immediately, but I smile to every happy person and in Italy, you know, you smile even to people on the street, or in all the Mediterranean countries, actually, when they smile at you. I smile always to my family, to my friends. So I smile to the wonders of nature and the wonders of blue.
Speaker 3:So I think, even if you don't want me to smile, but for sustainability, I'm continuing to smile and I think you should, as well, oh, that is a beautiful, beautiful thing, siggy, and it's been so amazing talking to you and, as ever, we've had the huge fortune to talk to somebody who takes us on this huge global journey around sustainability systems, the economy, the messy lives we lead as human beings, so it's been absolutely wonderful talking to you. Thank you so so much. Damla over to you.
Speaker 2:So thanks to everyone who has listened to our good guys podcast, brought to you by the do not smile network of agencies um, make sure you listen to any future episodes.
Speaker 3:People uh, we'll be talking to more amazing people like ciggy, about how we can all work together to make the world a better place. So thank you so much, ciggy and damla. See you soon see you, steve.
Speaker 2:Thank you, good guys. Thank you so much, siggy and Damla.
Speaker 1:See you soon. See you, steve. Thank you. Good geist, a podcast series on sustainability hosted by Damla Özler and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS network.
