Pillar 3: Outreach & Advocacy

POGO trainings were featured in three articles in the special Capacity Sharing issue of Oceanography Magazine Oceanography 38(1):   All Aboard! Providing Shipboard Technical Skills While Building Capacity in Ocean Observations Developing Capacity for Ocean Science Through Visiting Fellowships SPOTLIGHT • Impact and Insights from the NF–POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography: A Trainee Perspective

POGO had a presence at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM26), which was held in Glasgow, UK, from 22-27 February 2026.  This included various speaking opportunities, and two OBON-focused sessions.

COP30 (30th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) took place in Belém, Brazil from 10 to 21 November, 2025 POGO participated in the conference via several channels: (1) hosting an official side event, (2) hosting a official exhibit, and (3) psrticipating in the Virtual Ocean

As POGO convened at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, it issued a statement on the critical need for sustained ocean observations in order to achieve SDG14 and to measure progress against the ambitions set out by the UNFCCC/ Paris Agreement, CBD/ Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the new BBNJ Agreement, and other conventions and

As POGO convened at the 16th Conference of the Parties (CBD16) in Cali, Colombia, it issued a follow-up to the April 2024 Barcelona Declaration: To meet the biodiversity goals outlined in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2030 Targets, we must place ocean observations – particularly sustained, globally-coordinated biological observations – at the forefront

Case studies conducted by POGO members in different parts of the world demonstrate real examples of various socio-economic benefits of ocean observing. In the second phase of the project (2022 & 2023), we added stories on Climate-critical observing and Geohazards.

CBD COP16 (Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity) will take place in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November, 2024 POGO participated in the conference via several channels: (1) Expo stand, (2) hosting a side-event, (3) participating in other side events, (4) POGO-led statement on biomolecular

COP29 (29th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11 to 22 November, 2024 POGO participated in the conference via several channels: (1) hosting an official side event, (2) hosting a official exhibit, and (3) speaking in other sessions

Ahead of the UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona from 10th to 12th April 2024, POGO members came together to highlight the need for sustained, operational, and coordinated biological observation of the ocean, taking advantage of the recent development and expansion of biomolecular observation technologies and initiatives.

COP28 (28th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30 November – 12 December 2023. POGO participated in the conference through several channels: (1) hosting an official side event, (2) hosting a official exhibit, and (3) speaking in

In August, four miniboats were launched in the Atlantic as part of an outreach project led by POGO, Educational Passages, and AWI. The project involved the NoSoAT 2022 scholars, local partners in Ireland (NUI Galway), Germany (AWI), Spain (CSIC IEO) and South Africa (SAEON), and schools in each of these locations.

The 27th Climate Change Meeting (UNFCCC COP27) was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 6-18 November 2022. POGO participated in the conference through four main channels: (1) the Ocean Pavilion, (2) hosting an official side event, (3) hosting a official exhibit, and (4) speaking in other sessions

Case studies conducted by POGO members in different parts of the world demonstrate real examples of various socio-economic benefits of ocean observing. In the first phase of the project (2021), five case studies focused on different approaches to Coastal Water Quality Monitoring in Malaysia, Nigeria, Portugal, China and Mexico.

The second United Nations Ocean Conference was co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, in Lison, Portugal, in June 2022. POGO participated in person and virtually, and co-hosted two side events on Capacity Development and Biomolecular Observations.  In addition, the Secretariat coordinated a written statement on behalf of the members and submitted this during the conference,

Accelerating progress towards UN Ocean Decade Challenge 7: “Expanding the Global Ocean Observing System” At the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), held virtually from 24th to 27th January 2022, the members of POGO and Co-Chairs of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) discussed how to better define

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Meeting, UNFCCC COP26, was held as a hybrid meeting in Glasgow, UK, and online, in November 2021. POGO had a virtual exhibit booth, staffed online by the Secretariat.  We also co-hosted a side event, entitled, ” Ocean solutions: Coordination and collaboration for ocean-based mitigation and adaptation”.

During the OceanObs’19 conference in Hawaii, POGO and GEO Blue Planet launched the Oceanscape Portal, a joint initiative to identify existing and create new partnerships among the ocean observing community. All members of the ocean community are invited to participate by adding new “organisations”, which can include intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, private foundations, programmes/projects, companies, trade associations and others –

In 2019, POGO was involved in a major shipboard outreach initiative conducted during the South-North Atlantic training Transect (SoNoAT). Outreach activities within the SoNoAT included Skype sessions, blog posts and social media interactions. Skype sessions involved thirteen schools in five countries (two in Germany, eight in the UK, one in Ireland, one in Brazil and

A Statement by the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), issued at its 20th Annual Meeting held in Mindelo, Cabo Verde, in January 2019. Call to Action: We call on all governments, as well as funders and stakeholders worldwide, to support ocean science institutions in Africa, Small Island Developing States, and other parts

POGO’s exhibition booth, entitled ‘POGO – Observing our Ocean’, presented the ‘Three Pillars’ of POGO’s Mission: Developing capacity, innovative technology and international partnerships towards world-wide cooperation for a sustainable, state-of-the-art global ocean observing system which will serve the needs of science and society by supporting climate research and decision making.

The 4th GEO Blue Planet Symposium was held from 4 – 6 July 2018 in Toulouse, France, hosted by Mercator Oceans International and organised as a side event of the European Open Science Forum (ESOF).  The focus was on ocean and coastal information needs for sustainable development, Blue Growth and societal awareness, and involved a

In September 2018, POGO issued a Consensus Statement on the importance and value of ocean observations, for both science and society. This Statement reflects the agreement by the Directors of 38 major oceanographic institutions from around the world, to highlight the need for sustained support for ocean observations, their international coordination through a fully operational

A POGO delegation attended COP24 (24th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) in Katowice, Poland, from 3-14 December 2018.

The 3rd Blue Planet Symposium was held in College Park, Maryland, USA from 31 May to 2 June 2017. The symposium was co-hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Maryland and the University System of Maryland Foundation. The symposium served as a forum for discussion of societal information needs resulting from

and a delegation attends COP23 (Bonn, Germany); POGO partners with PML for the design and manning of an exhibition stand.

The second Blue Planet symposium for the GEO marine Task SB-01 “Oceans and Society: the Blue Planet” was held in Cairns, Australia from 27 to 29 May 2015. The symposium was co-organised by CSIRO and POGO. Additional side meetings of the NF-POGO Alumni Network for Oceans and ChloroGIN/SAFARI also took place prior to the symposium.

The “Ocean Communicators United” (OCU) Working Group is an informal grouping of representatives of international, regional or national oceanographic research organisations that provides a forum for its members to share information, expertise, best practices and materials related to marine science communications. Read more…

A kick-off symposium for the new GEO marine Task SB-01 “Oceans and Society: the Blue Planet” was held in Ilhabela, São Paulo State, Brazil, from November 19 to 21, 2012. The symposium was co-sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), GEO, INPE and POGO and took place just prior to the GEO-IX Plenary, held in

The “Hot, Sour and Breathless – Ocean under stress” awareness campaign, led by PML, was first launched at the COP17 conference (Durban, South Africa, 2011).  POGO came on board as a campaign supporter for the COP-18 Conference in Doha, Qatar (2012).

At a meeting of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) in Honolulu (January 2012), world leaders in ocean observing representing 29 major oceanographic institutions from 18 countries re-affirmed their commitment to work together for increased understanding of how our oceans are affected by climate change, and to optimise the benefits to society

Published in 2014, “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” is targeted at all stakeholders within the ocean and marine community. The book discusses activities and future actions of Blue Planet and raises awareness for the further development and implementation of the Blue Planet agenda. Readers will learn about ocean observations, how they can be integrated, and

The Seoul Declaration was written by the participants of the POGO-12 meeting, and signed by the Chairman of POGO, outlining the importance of ocean observations and data and technology sharing between observation networks. Particular emphasis was placed on the network of time-series observation stations OceanSITES, monitoring ocean acidification, ocean observations in the deep ocean, polar

The creation of the “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” Task was an initiative of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO) in 2011, to bring together all the existing ocean observation programmes within GEO, to add new ones to the GEO portfolio, and to create synergies between them. This has evolved into the

The Fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) took place from 7 to 18 December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. POGO, PML, Scripps and OCEANA shared a stand, with a focus on Ocean Acidification.

POGO was an ‘endorsing organisation’ for the decadal OceanObs’09 Conference. OceanObs ’09 brought together more than 600 scientists from 36 nations, supported by 99 Community White Papers and 47 Plenary Papers, to build a common vision for the provision of routine and sustained global information on the marine environment sufficient to meet society’s needs for describing,

Creation of “Oceans United” as a vehicle for various ocean organisations to speak with a common voice within GEO. During the GEO meeting in Geneva in December 2005, POGO initiated a side meeting of representatives of international organisations which participated in GEO that had an ocean mandate. The goal of the side meeting was to

Adopted by the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) at their Sixth Meeting at Brest, France, on November 30, 2004. As GEO was in the process of being formally established, the Communique called for a close working relationship between operational agencies and research communities to be maintained on a continuous basis. It urged

An outcome of the POGO-5 Meeting in Japan, the Yokohama Declaration was aimed specifically at influencing the discussions taking place within the newly formed Group on Earth Observations (GEO), and urging the GEO members to give high priority to ocean observation activities.

POGO/IOC/SCOR joint initiative to promote intelligent and sustainable use and management of the ocean, through collaboration among major oceanographic institutions, capacity development and advocacy – approved and included in WSSD View the Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development here.

Scientific Educational Resources and Experience Associated with the Deployment of Argo profiling floats in the South Pacific Ocean (SEREAD) is an educational program and resource that provides regionally relevant and focused ocean science that is built upon Argo data in a format that fits directly into existing curricula of Pacific Island schools. POGO co-sponsored this initiative, together with a number

At the POGO-2 Meeting, much of the discussion focused on the need for improved observations of the oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. Many of the challenges that face mankind today (climate change, collapsing fisheries and rising sea level, to name only a few) are global in scope. Our response to these challenges must be based on