Venice signs the “Sea’ties Declaration”

On Occasion of Ocean Day, the Mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro signed the “Sea’ties Declaration” thereby enlisting the City of Venice as a member of the “Ocean Rise & Resilience Coalition” set to be officially launched at the upcoming UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, in 2025. The signing, promoted by Venice-based agency for change UNLESS, occurred on board the Tara schooner, moored in Venice as stop-over during the Tara Europa-TREC expedition.

Venice joins in the forefront of the cities-Coalition to mitigate the impacts of sea level rise, enhance coastal resilience, and actively contribute to the successful development of the “Ocean Rise & Resilience Coalition”. The signing ceremony took place onboard the schooner Tara, moored in Riva dei Sette Martiri in Venice, at the presence of the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, the CEO of Tara Ocean Foundation and President of the Ocean & Climate platform, Romain Troublé, the Founder of UNA / UNLESS, architect Giulia Foscari, and the City Councillor of Nice, Aurore Asso.

Key objectives of the Coalition include mobilizing scientific research, fostering adaptive solutions, and enhancing funding mechanisms for coastal resilience initiatives to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time: the acceleration of sea level rise induced by anthropogenic climate change.

“It is an initiative connected to the recently concluded Salone Nautico explained Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, “in which we addressed the issue of climate change by putting water at the center. We are all aware of how Venice and its Lagoon are on the front line, but the history and survival of our city for 1,600 years relies on human ingenuity, science and applied technology. Over the centuries, the Serenissima Republic has been able to control the waters, turning vulnerability into opportunity, while facing the ongoing challenge of safeguarding a fragile and delicate city. By joining the Coalition we make our knowledge available to other coastal urban centers.”

Tara is the floating research vessel of Tara Ocean Foundation. The foundation led 13 expeditions since its inception in 2003 – 500 days at the North Pole, 4 years around the world’s marine plankton unveiling oceanic microplastics pollution, and 3 years understanding the coral reefs sensitivity to global change – each expedition pushing the boundaries of our knowledge on the Ocean and about the world in which we live. Starting in 2025, the foundation will have a second vessel, Tara Polar Station, specially built to drift in the Arctic ocean and to study this extreme ecosystem for 20 years.

Between the 5th-10th June Tara is moored in Venice, hosted by the City of Venice, as a stop-over of the Tara Europa-TREC expedition, led in partnership with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), which sees her and her expert crew sail along the European coastline to gather biological samples and environmental data at more than 120 sampling stations, measuring the impact of human pollution on biodiversity at the land-sea interface.

In signing the “Sea’ties Declaration”, the City of Venice joined efforts with network of over 40 cities and coastal regions around the world – amongst them Nice, Jacarta, New Orleans, Lagos, and Auckland to cite a few – all united towards the common goal of advocating globally and accelerating locally the implementation of transformative measures that ensure sustainable and equitable measures for coastal communities worldwide. This is the run-up to UNOC 2025, the United Nations Conference on Oceans summit, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica and lasting one week, that will bring together heads of state and government from around the world in Nice. This conference is an extremely important event in the fight against global warming and for the protection of marine environments.

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