World Ocean Summit Virtual Week: Confronting Deep Challenges, Head On

World Ocean Summit Virtual Week The Economist's eighth annual World Ocean Summit Virtual Week will take place next week from March 1st – 5th. With over 30 hours of content, 6,000 registrations and more than 170 speakers confirmed from across the globe, we will explore actionable solutions for the most pressing challenges facing the seas. We will ask how the world can achieve a balance between ocean restoration and economic prosperity. For the first time the agenda is divided into a series of plenary sessions as well as six action-oriented industry tracks: Aquaculture Fishing Shipping Energy Plastics Tourism. The focus areas for the plenary sessions are: Finance Innovation Climate and nature Governance. Featured speakers: Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway Frank Bainimarama, prime minister of Fiji Patricia Scotland, secretary-general, The Commonwealth Peter Thomson, special envoy to the ocean, UN (Live Q&A) Zac Goldsmith, minister of state for Pacific and the environment, UK Government Ricardo Serrão Santos, minister of maritime affairs, Portugal Paulo Veiga, minister of maritime economy, Cape Verde Ted Danson, actor, advocate and board member, Oceana Thomas Thune Andersen, chairman, Orsted Anna Turrell, head of environment, Tesco Elisabeth Munck af Rosenschöld, head of supply chain and sustainability, IKEA Burgess Davis, Vice president, global sustainable packaging and sustainability strategy, PepsiCo Kitack Lim, secretary-general, IMO Karin Kemper, global director environment, natural resources and blue economy, World Bank Georgiana de Noronha, president North Europe, The Kraft Heinz Company Craig Jasienski, group chief executive, Wallenius Wilhelmsen (Live Q&A) Jeremy Nixon, chief executive, Ocean Network Express (ONE) (Live Q&A) Ray Dalio, co-founder OceanX and founder, Bridgewater Associates View the agenda and full speaker line-up here. Launch session – a new ocean initiative, March 3rd, 11.30 – 12.00 GMT The session launches a new partnership between The Economist Group and The Nippon Foundation on the future of the ocean. The initiative marries The Economist Group's global audience and its reputation for objective, independent analysis with The Nippon Foundation's global reputation for supporting ocean science, data and evidence. Relaunching the World Ocean Initiative The World Ocean Summit is an integral part of The Economist Group's World Ocean Initiative (WOI), which imagines an ocean in robust health, and with a vital economy. The Initiative concentrates on three cross-cutting levers of change—finance, governance and innovation—each of which concern the 'what' and the 'why' for a sustainable ocean, but most of all they explore the 'how'. The Initiative's relaunched website at ocean.economist.com is one of its tools to engage and bring together the growing ocean community throughout the year. The Ocean Changemakers Challenge is a recent example of a WOI program that aims to showcase inspiring ocean innovators and their business solutions to ocean-related sustainability challenges. The challenge's three winners will receive guidance from three renowned ocean leaders as part of a 12-month mentorship program and will present their ideas during a special changemakers session at the summit, next week. Sponsors: Founding supporter: Blancpain Diamond sponsors: Wallenius Wilhelmsen Silver sponsors: Calysta, Environmental Defense Fund, MSC and Ocean Network Express (ONE) Bronze sponsors: Alliance to End Plastic Waste, AXA XL, BioMar, Cargill, Entrust Global, Mars Petcare Inc. and The Nature Conservancy Associate sponsors: Undersee, The Northland Power, Seafood Alliance for Legality & Traceability (SALT), FishWise Supported by: The Nippon Foundation The Pew Charitable Trusts Environment Coastal & Offshore (eco) Magazine