Ms Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme; Mr Peter Thomson, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean; Mr Sameer Al-Zenki, Executive Director, Environment and Life Sciences Centre at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR); and Mr Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the IAEA, discuss the new IAEA-KISR project on ocean health at COP28 in Dubai, 30 November 2023. (Photo: D. Calma/IAEA)
“The ship is ready, and we are looking to introduce a number of activities with the IAEA and partners in the region to try to address the major issues that impact the region and the world as a whole. We hope this will have an impact on the population, on the future generation to come and the livelihoods of the people living on this planet,” said Sameer Al-Zenki, Executive Director of the KISR Environment and Life Sciences Centre.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Anderson and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Vladimir Ryabinin both spoke at the event. They highlighted the damaging impact of pollution and other harmful human activities on the ocean and the importance of accurate monitoring to creating sustainable ocean ecosystems.
The IAEA-KISR ocean health project will further efforts by the IAEA and KISR to train marine scientists to collect and analyse marine samples using nuclear techniques.
By expanding the knowledge of marine ecosystems, scientists can better understand the effects of climate change and provide accurate data that can be used in climate change policymaking.
Peter Thomson, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, praised the project, noting that it would fill a research void. He stressed that, “without a healthy ocean we do not have a healthy planet, and we cannot survive,” drawing attention to the urgency of marine research efforts.
