EBI was invited to speak during a session held in hybrid form at the Italian Pavilion for the 2020 DUBAI Expo. The topic of the session was “The future of the Coastal Zone: Observing and Predicting the Global Coastal Ocean in support of sustainable economics and coastal policies”. The aim of the session was to offer an opportunity for dialogue between policy-makers, business representatives and science.

In representing the boating sector, EBI’s Secretary General Philip Easthill explained how the blue economy can be engaged to tackle the sustainability challenges of the future. He focused on the necessity to co-design a strategy by including companies and key stakeholders, as well as taking into account the needs of the sector, such as more accurate data, navigational information, mapping, environmental information (e.g. Posidonia). Moreover, he stressed on the role of boating as a solution combining ocean literacy and citizen science to develop further information and engage the private sector at the same time.