2024 Shenzhen Global Marine Economy Forum and World Laureates Ocean Forum
Theme of the Forum: Developing the Growth Drivers of the Blue Economy
China Marine Economy Expo (referred to as "CMEE") is the national marine economic exhibition in China. After moving to Shenzhen in 2019, it has been successfully held for four times, which has made positive contributions to promoting the high-quality development of China's marine economy and promoting international marine economic exchanges and cooperation. The 2024 CMEE will be held in Shenzhen, China, from October 31st to November 2nd, 2024, with a higher starting point, higher quality, and more international standards.
As the strategic forum of the CMEE, 2024 Shenzhen Global Marine Economy Forum and World Laureates Ocean Forum (referred to the "Forum") will be held from October 31st to November 1st 2024 at the Sheraton Shenzhen Futian Hotel in Shenzhen, China. With the theme of global marine capital city construction, the Forum will invite experts and representatives from international organization, domestic and foreign government department, commercial and technological sectors, as well as academia to be the speakers, and set ten topics around marine technology, marine industry, shipping and transportation, marine civilization, as well as marine cooperation and governance. The discussions aim to provide experience and suggestions for promoting exchanges and cooperation among global marine cities, accelerate the development of blue partnership, promote the high-quality development of the marine economy, and contribute to building a more internationally competitive, attractive and creative global marine capital city.
Time and Venue
Time of the Forum:31st October-1st November 2024
Location of the Forum:Ballroom, 6th Floor, Sheraton Shenzhen Futian Hotel, Great China International Exchange Square, Fuhua Road,Futian District，Shenzhen, Guangdong，China
Organizations
Agenda
Thursday ,31st October | |
| 13:00 | Registration of participants |
| 13:30-14:30 | Official Opening Ceremony Speeches by Senior Leaders from China and Overseas |
| 14:30-14:40 | Special address Thomas Sargent, 2011 Nobel Prize in Economics & W.R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business at New York University |
| 14:40-15:50 Session 1 | What Growth Potential for the Blue Economy - And China’s Part of It- By the 2030 Horizon? The ocean economy is today estimated to be worth 3 to 6 trillion US dollars and is expected to keep expanding as the potential of oceans' resources keeps expanding when it comes to blue food, offshore renewable energy, blue biotech or the many different ways in which the restoration of the oceans' ecosystems can contribute to the fight against climate change. However, ensuring the sustainability of the oceans resources is at the same time a key prerequisite and an absolute priority if the blue economy is to realize l its full potential as an ever more important source of prosperity and social development. √What factors will be most impactful in the coming years in driving the expansion of the blue economy？ √What sectors of the blue economy are expected to have the greatest growth potential by 2030？ √What of sustainable long-term growth of the marine economy will require from governments, from corporations, from the academic community and the public at large？ √What is the picture with respect to the growth potential of China's blue economy compared to the overall expansion of the global blue economy over the next seven or ten years？ √What next initiatives for Shenzhen to play an even bigger role for China's marine economy expansion and global marine hub in the coming years？ Speakers Moderator |
| 16:00-17:10 Session 2 | Moving Faster on Restoring the Marine Ecosystems and Ensuring Their Long-Term Sustainability The oceans ecosystems absorb 25% of the world CO2 emissions. They also absorb close to 90% of the additional heat generated from CO2 emissions generated by human activities. However, only 7% of the global ocean is currently protected at different degrees, The restoration of marine ecosystems and their long-term sustainability are nevertheless of critical importance not only to revitalize the world's oceans and ensure that they provide increasingly needed resources of all kinds but also in helping to fight climate change. √Mobilizing the required financial resources for the restoration of Blue ecosystems? √Expanding the crucial role of Coastal wetlands and mangrove forests in carbon sequestration? √Leveraging the potential of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and data analytics to accelerate the restoration of marine ecosystems? √What is needed to accelerate the restoration of oceans ecosystems in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area? Speakers Moderator |
| 17:20-18:30 Session 3 | Improving the Efficiency and Increasing the Scope of Ocean Governance There is no underestimating the progress achieved in the last few years in expanding the scope of the global oceans governance, with the adoption of the global biodiversity framework, of the global ocean treaty contributing to secure the protection and effective management of the high seas, the global plastic pollution treaty, to mention some significant positive steps. However, the challenges in ensure the sustainability of the oceans ecosystems keep getting more acute and more urgent. √What is needed to ensure the swift implementation by government and the private sector of the commitments made by the signatories of the existing treaties? √Leveraging technologies for a more efficient global oceans governance? √How to expand China's contribution to a more efficient global oceans governance？ Speakers Moderator |
Friday, 1st November | |
| 08:15 | Registration of Participants |
| 08:45-09:55 Session 4 | Activating a Network of Global Marine Cities – Including Shenzhen – for New Innovation and Business Synergies Global marine cities have a very important role to play in ensuring a sustainable, growing, blue economy. There is a lot of experience and knowledge to be shared among them for addressing common issues such as coastal cities waste management, tackling plastic pollution and promoting a circular blue economy, resilience to the impact of rising sea levels induced by climate change, etc. √What mechanisms to connect think tanks and ocean-related academic institutions based in marine cities for knowledge sharing and joint-projects creation？ √How to use the annual international climate meetings (COP) to create a network of key marine cities, following up on the“Call to Action for Subnational Governments”which will be launched at the COP16 in Cali？ √How to help Shenzhen accelerate its development as a global ocean center city？ Speakers Moderator |
| 10:05-11:05 Session 5 | Corporate and Policy Initiatives to Accelerate the Decarbonization of Maritime Industry The last few years have seen a decisive shift towards the greening of the shipping and logistics industry. Decarbonization has now become a guiding, urgent, priority for the world's shipping companies, ports and logistics operators. With the sipping contributing to about 3% of total greenhouse gas emissions and the whole maritime industry accounts for about 17% of global CO2 emissions, accelerating the decarbonization process to help achieve the 2050 zero emission goal, is a major goal and challenge for every player in the maritime industry. And the coming into force on January 2025 of EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS) is increasing the pressure for decarbonization. √Dealing with the challenges involved in relying on new fuel options, such as biofuels, methanol and ammonia? √Will Financing options expand enough to help operators sustain the costs of an accelerated decarbonization process ？ √What will be the transformative impact of decarbonization on the shipping and maritime industry as a whole？ √ How are legislation and policies on shipping decarbonization promulgated by China working at the national and local levels ? What actions taken? What issues to be addressed？ Speakers Moderator |
| 11:15-12:25 Session 6 | Developing and Expanding the Use of New Financial Instruments for Marine Activities Speakers Moderator |
| 12:25-13:25 | Lunch Break |
| 13:25-14:25 Session 7 | Promoting Business Initiatives and Innovation for Making of the Oceans a Major Factor in Fighting Climate Change Many ocean-related activities in which business has a crucial role to play , such as the development of offshore renewable energy, or marine carbon capture technologies, play a significant role in the fight against climate change. Corporate R&D to develop these kinds of initiatives is today encouraged by the potential for revenues created by carbon credits. Such initiatives and innovations also comprise the development of blue proteins to meet increasing demand for affordable food, or innovations in the coastal tourism industry to reduce significantly carbon emissions and water pollutants. √Creating China's legal framework for companies to develop seaweed cultivation for carbon removal.? √What role for Chinese companies in developing offshore carbon capture and storage projects ? √Developing the potential of ocean AI technology for as more efficient understanding of the interaction between climate change on ocean ecosystems. √How can the commercial vitality of Shenzhen and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area be leveraged to drive continuous innovation in this field and support global efforts to address climate change？ Speakers Moderator |
| 14:35-15:45 Session 8 | The Future of Blue Science: Developing the Research on the Oceans' Ecosystems We still know relatively little about our ocean systems. For instance, as of Jun e 2024 only 26.1% of the world's seafloor has been mapped with modern technology and over 80% of Earth's ocean remains unexplored. The Ocean scientific community is warning that the deterioration of the oceans ecosystems is developing faster than our knowledge of these ecosystems. The 2021-2030 period has been declared the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to stimulate the development of the oceans-related sciences and knowledge generation. √What partnerships will best contribute to accelerate advances in ocean science and to expand our understanding of the ocean systems？ √What can be the contribution of blue economy-related corporations and startups in advancing the science and understanding of the oceans ？ √How is the science of the oceans progressing in China? How does it compare with the state of research at the international level? Are there ways to accelerate progress in this domain？ Speakers Moderator |
| 15:55-17:05 Session 9 | Where Is Marine Technology Innovation Going? What Implications for the Blue Economy? Whether it is applications of AI technology, IoT capabilities, the leveraging of Big Data, the use of ever more sophisticated drones or 3D mapping, the leveraging of these new technologies in the whole scope of blue economic activities will increasingly impact the way the Blue economy develops in the coming year. For instance, the increasing use of robotics and of Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies is expected to have a game-changing impact for the shipbuilding industry. Similarly, Blue Biotechnology is expected to considerably improve the sustainable management and protection of oceans, fisheries, and coastal and marine ecosystems. √What initiatives to address some specific challenges in leveraging blue-economy-related innovations, such as conditions of the research environment, long development timelines due to the complexity of ocean-related technologies, insufficient access to capital etc. ? √How to promote the creation of more “Made in China” Marine technology innovation？ √What actions to enhance the contribution of Blue economy startups? Speakers Moderator |
| 17:15-18:25 Session 10 | Mapping the Future of Marine Engineering Industries Marine engineering industries are crucial to a wide variety of domains of the ocean economy, from working on shipbuilding and maintenance to building offshore platforms, from high-tech devices to increase navigation accuracy to prevention of oil spills. The whole sector of marine engineering is now going through transformative technological innovations and digitization that will make it more efficient, more reliable and a greater contributor to a sustainable high-growth ocean economy. √What assets can key players in China's marine engineering industries leverage to be part of the global leadership group in this sector？ √How will emerging technologies such as DataOps, digital twins, and AI transform the whole marine engineering industries sector? √Addressing the financing and the skills availability challenges for the transformation of the marine engineering industries? Speakers Moderator |
| 18:25-18:30 | Concluding Remarks: What We Take Home Claude Smadja, President, Smadja & Smadja Strategic Advisory Switzerland, Senior Adviser of Global Ocean Capital Promotion Council of Shenzhen |
*The final agenda shall be subject to the actual situation.