UNESCO has confirmed that the only Ocean Decade Collaborative Centre (DCC) dedicated to the sustainable ocean economy will be located in Barcelona, where it will be active at least until 2030, marking the end of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030.

In this way, Barcelona —which hosted the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference— becomes the first city to lead one of the ten challenges set by the United Nations for the protection of the marine ecosystem and the development of a sustainable and equitable ocean economy. Until now, such initiatives had been led by entities such as universities and research centers. The Barcelona DCC, which will begin operating this year, will focus on Challenge 4, which refers to “developing a sustainable and equitable ocean economy,” a field in which the city is already a reference point.

During the presentation of the new center, Mayor Jaume Collboni announced on June 5 the “creation of a working group to promote measures to preserve and regenerate Barcelona’s coastline, through a strategic plan to ensure that 30% of Barcelona’s coastline becomes marine space,” and highlighted that Barcelona is hosting “UNESCO’s only international center on the blue economy, as a legacy of the work begun a year ago with the Ocean Decade Conference, with the aim of generating a think tank on the blue economy, promoting innovation in key sectors of this field, and creating an international and public-private network that can contribute knowledge and value to the blue economy”.

The Barcelona City Council leads the DCC project in collaboration with the Port of Barcelona and Generalitat de Catalunya, with scientific partners such as the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), through its Institute of Marine Sciences, and BlueNetCat, Catalonia’s Maritime R&D&I Network (which brings together more than 800 scientists from the main Catalan universities and research centers and serves as the innovation and transfer instrument of the Catalan Maritime Agenda of the Directorate-General for Maritime Policy and Sustainable Fisheries of the Government of Catalonia), and with the support of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. The implementing partner of the DCC is the Fundació Barcelona Capital Nàutica, which will host it at its facilities in the Port of Barcelona and will be responsible for personnel and budget management.

The DCC will have three strategic pillars:
– Generate knowledge on the blue economy.
– Promote innovation in this sector.
– Foster international partnerships and alliances.

Following these pillars, specific actions include:
– Establishing itself as a global think tank on the blue economy.
– Creating the world’s largest repository of scalable public and private projects applicable to ocean economic development.
– Consolidating a Blue Economy Impact Investment Fund based in Barcelona.
– Building an international public-private expert network on the blue economy.
– Promoting international blue economy events held in the city, mainly the Tomorrow Blue Economy.