Youth4Ocean

Updated on 29 November 2023

After numerous interviews throughout Europe, 50 young people were selected to found the Youth4Ocean Forum. With our help, they drew up the Forum’s rules and laid a solid foundation from which to launch strong initiatives, to work together on behalf of the ocean, and to voice their ideas, beliefs, and points of view to European decision-makers.

From the 30th of November to the 12th of December 2023, COP 28 - Conference of the Parties on Climate Change - was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Nausicaá is contributing to this COP through its participation in the Youth4Ocean Forum project. Two people have been accredited for the event: Christian Clauwers, photographer and explorer, and Eleni Kazelas, member of the Youth4Ocean Forum and founder of the Let’s make Cyprus green association.

Furthermore, on the 8th of December, Nausicaá is organising a participatory workshop in the Virtual Ocean Pavilion on the theme of “Connecting Generations for ocean and Climate Action” to create an application to mobilise citizens. This virtual pavilion has been set up in collaboration with the Global Ocean Forum, Plymouth Marine Laboratory and other organisations around the world.

The Youth4Ocean forum will be presenting its activities alongside those of its members on a virtual stand on the theme of Ocean & Change.

This event is scheduled on COP28 of the UNFCCC thematic day: Youth, Children, Education and Skills.

The purpose of this workshop is to draw young people and senior professionals together to identify and prioritise key challenges relating to the ocean and climate change in diverse geographical regions of the world, generate and prioritise individual and collective actions and concrete solutions that can be taken up by individuals of all ages either on their own or as a community. These key challenges and concrete action solutions will be assembled in a digital networking tool that will help to build an ocean virtual community of practice in response to different thematic challenges that ocean and climate topic is part of. The digital tool will be relevant throughout the world and free of charge and will be presented at the United Nations Ocean Conference scheduled in June 2025 in France.   

Lastly, members of the Youth4Ocean Forum will be interviewing COP negotiators, both on-site and online.

There are now over 175 members who have joined the Youth4Ocean Forum and new members are joining all the time.

Youth4Ocean is also a personalised support programme for young project leaders: we help them to get in touch with experts, take part in conferences or work together to develop collective messages.

Nausicaá acts as a facilitator to put young people in touch with people who are references and recognised in their field in order to develop their ocean literacy and provides their resources.

In a second project phase, which will last 3 years, Nausicaá will work with a Youth Environment Europe organisation to ensure that the voice of young people is heard. The aim is also to increase the number of organisations in the coalition, the number of young people and the number of blue schools by working on communication and education campaigns.

Are you between 16 and 30 years of age and would you like to get involved and help the ocean on a big scale? The Youth4Ocean Forum is made for you!.

The Forum is open to all, participative, and inclusive and it needs you to make an even bigger splash!

The discussions are mainly in English, but people from all over the world are involved and everyone has their place.

Just follow the steps described in this article to become a member. If you have any problems, we are available to help at youth4ocean[a]nausicaa.fr.

The founding members organise virtual meetings every month to welcome new members and invite them to participate in ongoing actions. Once registered, you will be invited to a meeting by e-mail.

In order that the oceans and the challenges facing them become everyone’s concern, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is supporting the establishment of a coalition for the ocean ‒ the EU4Ocean Coalition ‒ with a view to involving all European citizens.

The coalition is made up of three communities:

• The EU4Ocean platform is a hub for experts, institutions, and organisations already involved in ocean outreach work.
• The Youth Forum for the Ocean (Youth4Ocean Forum)
• The EU Network of Blue Schools, whose member schools have demonstrated the integration of marine science awareness in their programmes.

Nausicaá is involved in the consortium and the governance of the project on a European scale and plays a leading role in implementing actions for ocean literacy in France and in Europe.

Nausicaá is coordinating the implementation and actions of the Youth4Ocean Forum with the support of the World Ocean Network.