Discovering the Blue Zone

Author: Jess Allen, Communications Officer, NOC

After a day of rest, the COP28 action is back in full swing today. Although it's now the second week, it's the first day for some who have taken over the baton from week one participants. 

Ocean-based solutions

We arrived at COP’s Blue Zone on a beautiful early morning, I was relieved to see we had beaten the queues and breezed through after seeing many photos of queues that were at least two hours long.
 

Carbon dioxide removal is unsurprisingly a hot topic at COP. Today kicked off bright and early with NOC’s Dr Chelsey Baker joining the ‘Greenhouse Gas Removal Pathways’ press conference. The live-streamed press conference gave a variety of perspectives on the possibilities around greenhouse gas removal solutions. Chelsey spoke about how oceanographic research informs possible ocean-based carbon dioxide removal solutions and the need for further investment in scientific research. 
 

Adventures in the Blue Zone

Following the press conference, we had some time to explore and find the Ocean Pavilion. I have to say, we got lost today. A lot. That’s not because the signage is poor – in fact, you can’t walk far without coming across a map and there are plenty of organisers around to help you. It’s just that Dubai’s Expo City is just so vast and full of beautiful, and sometimes unusual features that we would get caught up looking around and realise we had lost all perspective of where we were. This also helped us to rival the step counts of the NOC week 1 delegates!

Once we’d finally found the Ocean Pavilion, we were greeted with the one clear message that all partners are here to convey: we can’t solve the climate crisis without the ocean. The pavilion’s blue walls are paved with powerful ocean statements, ‘the ocean unites us all’ is one of my favourites.

One of the key areas of the pavilion is the main theatre, featuring a packed schedule full of world-leading scientists and, ocean experts and stakeholders coming together to bring to voice and discuss ocean issues. One of the coolest features of the Ocean Pavilion is its ‘Immersion Theatre’ which is a space to gather your thoughts in the buzzing atmosphere.

Even after a full day of exploring, I know I’ve not even scratched the surface of COP. Whilst we will be talking about and representing the ocean every day, tomorrow promises to be a big day for the ocean, with COP’s theme focusing on Nature, Land Use & the Ocean.

Check out what’s happening in the Ocean Pavilion on the website, including access to event live streams: Ocean Pavilion | 2023 UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE (oceanpavilion-cop.org)