The launch of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) aims at catalyzing a global focus to advance SDG 14 (Borja et al., 2020a). This will enhance the co-design of knowledge and actions for transformative ocean solutions, to address the challenges of a growing human population and climate change. Human pressures on the Ocean are important – 37% of the human population live in the coast from small villages to megacities exceeding 10 million people (e.g., New York, Shanghai, Lagos) and use the Ocean for a huge range of inputs, outputs and services, including amenity, food, transport, cooling water and waste disposal, as well as traditional and cultural uses. Many of these ecosystem services are undervalued, being conservatively estimated at $12.6 Trillion annually more than 20 years ago (Costanza et al., 1997). This is without considering two of the most severely undervalued services provided by the Ocean, as heat and carbon sinks, that have buffered many of the negative impacts of climate change. Many anthropogenic activities are leaving significant, direct and measurable global footprints in the Ocean with high profile examples including fishing^1,2,3,, shipping lanes (Liu et al., 2019; Pirotta et al., 2019), dredging⁴, plastic pollution (Hardesty et al., 2017; Barrett et al., 2020), noise pollution (Di Franco et al., 2020; Chahouri et al., 2021; Duarte et al., 2021), and changes in Ocean chemistry⁵.

Human populations rely directly on the Ocean for food and other commercial activities, but a growing body of research has identified our dependency on the Ocean for health and well-being (Borja et al., 2020b). Other ecosystem services provided by the Ocean are also yet to be properly considered. These include the cultural and spiritual services provided by the Ocean (Brown and Hausner, 2017; de Juan et al., 2021), which have developed over millennia of human relationships with the Ocean and represent knowledge and connections that extend beyond monetary value. Aiming to integrate this knowledge in scientific endeavours, many indigenous peoples are bringing their traditional science and knowledge to partner with western science (Mazzocchi, 2006) and provide a more in-depth and long-term understanding of the Ocean, especially in coastal areas (Mustonen et al., 2021).

While the challenges are clear and sometimes seem overwhelming, approaches and solutions are being actively developed and tested; several of these are explored in this Research Topic.

With more than three billion people who rely on fish for at least 20% of their daily protein, and more than 120 million directly employed in the fishing and aquaculture sectors⁶, sustainable fishing (Penca; Fiorentino and Vitale; Jaiteh et al.) and aquaculture (Azra et al.) were a natural focus of several papers. This included a call for reducing effort in mixed species fisheries, and therefore fishing mortality, to take into account the differing and lower productivity of some species and the risk to their sustainability (Newman et al., 2018), and adopt a quota system based on “pretty good yield” (Hilborn, 2010).

Others emphasized the need for better conservation planning and coordination (Katsanevakis et al.; Ceccarelli et al.; Herrera et al.) as well as integration of their cultural and spiritual values into wider society (Baker et al.). This includes the need to improve spatial management, providing specific approaches to minimize human impacts and risks to charismatic megafauna. This management approach could be applied to whale watching activities, to support sustainable non-extractive human activities in the Ocean (Almunia et al.). The article by Adewumi et al., dealing with the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem shared among Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon, highlighted the challenges of international ocean governance, a result of political characteristics, the relics of colonialism, and increasing ocean use and pressure on marine ecosystems and services. The administrative and political arrangements differ significantly among countries, complicating transnational collaboration. The review of these arrangements revealed varying levels of convergence at international, regional and national levels, and could be a model to assist regional fishery management organizations to support positive steps toward ocean sustainability (Juan-Jordá et al., 2018).

Future risks to the Ocean (Garcia-Soto et al.), including those imposed by climate change (Green et al.), and the tools (Mariani et al.), approaches (e.g., Endrédi et al.; Hsu et al.), and ways to monitor this complex system (Jones et al.), including biodiversity (Herrera et al.), highlighted the extraordinary and diverse values of the Ocean and challenges (Figure 1). Embracing modern technologies (Almunia et al.; Green et al.), including the Internet of Things (Mariani et al.), could also promote and support a harmonization of ocean monitoring among all nations, and support international initiatives and cooperation⁷, including platforms to involve the wider community⁸.

The social dimension (Haward and Haas) will also be critical as a way of valuing and engaging with direct and indirect stakeholders of the Ocean and in developing better policies for governance (Paredes-Coral et al.; Polejack; Adewumi et al.; Kirkfeldt and Frazão Santos; Archana and Baker; Rohmana et al.). This is especially true at the land-sea interface (Singh et al.) where human populations concentrate and the risks from a changing climate are directly evident, with projected sea level rise (Nicholls and Cazenave, 2010; Hooijer and Vernimmen, 2021), and more frequent and intense storms (Pugatch, 2019; Chen et al., 2020). It is also true for the deep ocean (Howell et al.), which remains largely unexplored. The socio-ecological connections described in this Research Topic of Frontiers in Marine Science provide frameworks and hope for a sustainable future for the coasts and ocean.

While this Frontiers in Marine Science Research Topic does not represent all initiatives underway globally to address SDG 14, it provides a glimpse of some of the diverse approaches and intellectual capital invested in ocean sustainability. While the goal focuses on Life Below Water, these approaches directly support many other SDGs, which arguably cannot be achieved without a healthy and sustainable ocean (Mustonen et al., 2021).

We hope that other initiatives currently underway will assist in not only highlighting the links between SDG 14 and other SDGs but also provide a way for synergies among disparate knowledge domains to support transdisciplinary and multi-sectoral approaches for good policy development. As examples, we note the significant initiatives around the globe in areas of blue carbon and an equitable “blue economy.” Blue carbon projects not only protect and restore seagrass, mangrove, salt marsh, and macrophytes, but also support the associated biodiversity and human livelihoods that depend on these critical habitat-forming species. “Working with nature approaches” including in the restoration of corals, seagrasses, seaweeds, and mangroves are underway around the globe, with new methods being developed and tested [e.g., genetic techniques to identify more heat tolerant species of coral (Buerger et al., 2020) and other marine habitat building species (Alsuwaiyan et al., 2021)].

The efforts in these areas will be underpinned by new methods of accounting—such as blue carbon, biodiversity, ecosystem services and a framework of ocean accounting which is currently being developed⁹. This approach embraces environmental, social and cultural accounting, in addition to economic accounting, to better assess and value entire marine areas and ecosystems and integrate a wide range of SDGs. Our hope is that this will support and enable clearer and better decisions by ocean and coastal management agencies. These decisions should be based on a number of decision support tools, including: (i) management strategy evaluation approaches, (ii) scenario testing including assessing a range of alternative approaches, and (iii) potentially creating digital twins to test and explore management decisions before ocean activities commence.

We look forward to making the difficult possible and contributing to a vibrant, thriving future throughout the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the UN Decade of Restoration (Waltham et al., 2020) based on some of the cutting-edge approaches detailed in this Research Topic of Frontiers in Marine Science.

Footnotes

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are at the forefront of government initiatives across the world. The SDGs are primarily concerned with promoting sustainable growth via ensuring wellbeing, economic growth, environmental legislation, and academic advancement. One of the most prominent goals of the SDG is to provide learners with high-quality education (SDG 4). This paper aims to look at the perspectives of the Sustainable Development Goals improvised to provide quality education. We also analyze the existing state of multiple initiatives implemented by the Indian government in the pathway to achieving objectives of quality education (SDG 4). Additionally, a case study is considered for understanding the association among the observed indicators of SDG4. For this purpose, exploratory data analysis, and numerical association rule mining in combination with QuantMiner genetic algorithm approaches have been applied. The outcomes reveal the presence of a significant degree of association among these parameters pointing out the fact that understanding the impact of one (or more) indicator on other related indicators is critical for achieving SDG 4 goals (or factors). These findings will assist governing bodies in taking preventive measures while modifying existing policies and ensuring the effective enactment of SDG 4 goals, which also will subsequently aid in the resolution of issues related to other SDGs.

Saini, M., Sengupta, E., Singh, M. et al. Sustainable Development Goal for Quality Education (SDG 4): A study on SDG 4 to extract the pattern of association among the indicators of SDG 4 employing a genetic algorithm. Educ Inf Technol 28, 2031–2069 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11265-4

Green technologies have the power to not only create a sustainable future but also drive social innovation. World Meteorological Organization and other scientific bodies have been consistently showing increasing global temperature, more frequent extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and flooding, and rising sea levels. It is the responsibility of public and private companies worldwide to take action in reducing their carbon emissions. To ensure accountability, corporations must be willing to share their short- and long-term goals and be transparent about their progress.

Hitachi, a global leader in technology, is committed to achieving carbon neutrality in all of its operational facilities by 2030 and throughout its value chain by 2050. Our goal is to leverage green technologies and share them with our customers, our partners and the world to deliver environmental and social value — thereby creating a more sustainable society.

Hitachi has embarked on infrastructure improvements, from transitioning to higher-efficiency HVAC units and LED lighting to expanding our use of solar power. We’re also developing a circular economy strategy that allows us to give our products second and third lives and reduces our reliance on mining virgin materials or depleting natural resources.

Our innovations at Sullair, a Hitachi subsidiary, are an indicator of how long we’ve been working on meaningful sustainability solutions. Although compressed air powers nearly 70% of manufacturing operations globally,¹ Sullair offers a whole goods remanufacturing program. This innovation will mark its 10th anniversary in March 2023, and we’ve produced more than 2,700 remanufactured air compressors since its inception. To date, our remanufacturing program has helped offset over 5,000 metric tons of CO₂production through salvage and component reclamation.

Sullair is in the process of expanding the remanufacturing program to optimize its impact. This is in keeping with our goal of making remanufacturing an intrinsic element of design from the outset: ensuring that we design for second, third and even fourth lives, where feasible, from the beginning.

We’re also looking ahead to strategies we can develop to incorporate this approach throughout the supply chain. We recognize that only by pushing our sustainability values and culture across our entire value chain can we fully realize our sustainability objectives.

Another of our climate-focused initiatives is the GREEN 21 Team at Hitachi Computer Products (America) (HICAM). Founded in the early 2000s, it serves two purposes: to promote environmental awareness among employees and to coordinate a variety of green and socially responsible initiatives, from reducing waste and increasing recycling to making a positive impact on the communities where we do business.

Based in Norman, Oklahoma, HICAM performs assembly and distribution functions for enterprise-level data storage solutions. Our facility uses wind power as its primary source of electricity, and part of our CO₂ reduction plan is to introduce new technology to replace the current system that relies on natural gas boilers to control humidity.

In addition to these operational sustainability measures, we invest continually in programs intended to raise employees’ awareness of their own impact on the environment. The GREEN 21 team has stocked our coffee bars with compostable supplies and partnered with a local commercial composting facility. This serves to remind our employees that small, individual actions, when multiplied by our global population, can have a powerful impact on the quality of life on our planet.

With that in mind, we examine every aspect of our site closely in search of large- and small-scale environmental opportunities. Among those we’ve identified are reducing the amount of power required to perform some functions, such as testing; installing a reflecting membrane on the roof that keeps energy absorption low; and introducing landscaping schemes that reduce our outdoor water consumption. Our ongoing plans include installing charging stations for employees’ use in the parking lot to encourage the transition to electric vehicles.

Our goal in developing these green initiatives goes far beyond achieving our own sustainability targets. At Hitachi, our powering good mission extends to every company and industry on the planet. With their own environmental targets to reach, supply chain issues to address, and fossil fuel dependencies to overcome, organizations of every size need tested and proven green technologies. What’s more, environmental stewardship is an important value for the new generation of job seekers. Today’s workers value sustainability and will hold companies accountable for the negative impact that business operations have on the planet.

By first developing and applying green technologies in our own companies, Hitachi can share tested and proven solutions with our customers, our partners and the world to help create a more sustainable society for all.

For more information about Hitachi’s sustainability practices, visit Sustainability at Hitachi.

With 1,072 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births, Liberia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In the remote areas, infrastructure and facilities in clinics are often lacking; midwives and health workers have to deliver babies without any electricity at night. With the installation of solar lighting systems by UN Women and partners, conditions have improved in 26 clinics and five newly constructed Maternal Waiting Rooms across Liberia.

Date: Monday, 17 July 2017

A dim ray of sunlight shines through the window of the Post-Partum Room at Bodowhea Clinic in Liberia’s River Cess County. In the small space, which is also used as a storeroom for drugs and other medical supplies, midwife Lorina Karway, 41, attends to a mother and her new born baby.

Due to the lack of electricity the night before, Karway and her colleagues had struggled to care for the pregnant woman who had been rushed to the clinic for an emergency delivery. This time, they were able to save the lives of the mother and her baby.

“It was a lucky night for us because the mother did not have any complications, so she gave birth safely,” says Karway. Had there been complications, the lack of adequate facilities would have made her work difficult.

Last month, Karway helped in delivering 17 babies at the clinic, which caters to over 6,000 residents of the Morweh District of River Cess County.

“A few of those women arrived at the clinic with complications, and they had to be transferred to the St. Francis Hospital in Cestos City–102 kilometers away from Bodowhea [because they have better facilities],” shares Karway. Maternal and child health care facilities at most health centres across Liberia are in dire need of basic infrastructure and support to operate efficiently. Every night, the Bodowhea Clinic lies in darkness. The nurses and other health workers on duty improvise by using light from their cellphones, or ask the patients to purchase gasoline for the clinic’s generator.

“It’s really challenging to assist with a delivery using my phone’s light, because I can’t see clearly. I have to hold the phone in my mouth while working. Doing [medical] procedures at night is almost impossible,” explains Karway. 

Under the H6 Joint Programme on Health (formerly H4+) —a partnership that brings together six UN agencies working in collaboration with the Liberian Government—UN Women has installed solar lighting systems in 26 health centres and in five maternal waiting rooms in rural Liberia, including the Bodowhea Clinic, to improve maternal and child healthcare services.

“For UN Women, ensuring adequate health care for women, children and communities is a basic starting point for improved lives and livelihoods,” says Ghoma Karloweah, UN Women Liberia Programme Manager. “By listening to the stories of health workers and community members, especially women, you can see how excited they are about the improvements at their health facilities. The installation of the lights and the overall interventions under the project are gradually changing how healthcare services are provided and how people access these services.”

With 1,072 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births, Liberia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, according to UNICEF. The mortality rate of newborns, within the first 28 days of life, is also high—37 for every 1,000 live births. At present, the Programme targets six of Liberia’s fifteen counties—Maryland, Grand Kru, River Gee, Grand Capemount, Gbarpolu and River Cess—which are also among the most remote areas with high incidents of maternal and child mortality.

At Jundu Community Clinic, located in Grand Cape Mount County, midwife Matilda Tolbert says that the improvements in the working environment and service delivery are noticeable since the installation of the solar lights: “It feels safer now to work at the clinic at night. In the past, once it was dark, we would go home and if there were emergencies, the patients or their families will rush and call us,” says Tolbert.

“Today, our patients do not have to worry about money to buy gasoline, and for us as health workers, having light means that we are able to care for our patients better,” she adds.

Nurses and health workers at all of the 37 clinics supported with the solar lights have been trained in the maintenance and operations of the systems. Photo: UN Women/Winston Daryoue

As part of its efforts to improve maternal healthcare, UN Women, in partnership with Liberia’s Ministry of Health, has also trained 115 health workers and clinic staff in the six counties on how to operate and maintain the solar systems. The solar lighting system is built to work under severe weather conditions and with proper maintenance, can last up to fifteen years.

To date, additional medical equipment, including X-ray machines and ventilators, have been supplied to the clinics under the Joint Programme, and 736 health workers have been trained in preventive and promotive aspects of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. 

The programme, contributes towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 3, which aims to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. It also contributes towards the ‘Every Women, Every Child’ initiative, a global movement that mobilizes actions to address the major health challenges of women and children.

First, the UN policy brief stresses the need for a concise, widely accepted, comparable, and universally applicable (p. 10) framework to complement GDP. The expanded wealth framework IISD applies in our work is just that. Based on the global comprehensive/inclusive wealth frameworks developed by the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme, this robust framework complements GDP by measuring the assets that underpin well-being in all its forms: economic, environmental, and social. Our country partners understand the utility of the framework and are working with us to implement it using country data and expertise. We have modified the global methods used by the World Bank in ways that will ensure comparability and universal applicability—for example, by simplifying the approach to measuring human capital and produced capital.

The three coutries are using a simplified method of estimating the value of produced assets. This method builds on guidance for measuring capital stocks from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and uses basic data on fixed capital formation available in essentially all countries. As such, it effectively leverages what already exists. Data for fixed capital formation in major economic sectors were readily available in all three countries for at least a 20-year time horizon. Using OECD methodological guidance, these data were readily converted to the time series of stock values required to measure wealth.

Second, the Secretary-General emphasizes that any framework to measure beyond GDP must be country owned (p. 10). Our wealth framework is being applied in three countries with very different development priorities, challenges, and data availability. Nevertheless, robust estimates have been produced for all three countries by national experts using national data. The results reveal useful insights in each. To help build country ownership, IISD provides guidance and quality control while leaving the estimation work to country experts. These experts are responsible for liaising with national statistical offices, central banks, and other data providers to collect data, calculate indices, prepare reports, and consult on policy recommendations. The IISD team provides support and arranges peer-support meetings between the country experts. The approach has been strongly collaborative from the start, with the goal of ensuring country ownership of the methods and results in the end.

Third, the Secretary-General suggests that measuring beyond GDP should be “iterative and dynamic, based on what exists, while allowing for the addition of new indicators” (p. 10). By building upon the World Bank’s and UN Environment Programme’s efforts to measure expanded wealth indicators, IISD is already applying this guidance in its efforts to go beyond GDP. 

Finally, the Secretary-General also stresses that any framework intended to complement GDP should convey strong and clear messages that are actionable and intuitive (p. 10). IISD’s collaborative approach to building expanded wealth measures provides useful insights for the countries involved. It helps them build the capacity that will inevitably be needed if countries are to move beyond GDP. Our experience shows that data collection, estimation, and interpretation will consist of a multi-year effort.

While it is important to understand the concepts and rationale for this work, many of the specific challenges in national application only become evident through “doing.” IISD’s engagement with country partners has, so far, lasted 4 years and involved more than 14,000 hours of technical support. Our experience shows that with support, countries can produce expanded wealth measures. Over time, countries will be able to produce this data on their own—just as they do for GDP. But reaching that goal will require targeted long-term support and guidance so countries can gain the experience they need.

Don’t think of it as a natural resource like oil or gas — though hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, best known for its starring role in water (H20).

Rather, many experts say that hydrogen is a crucial storage medium for the clean energy future. It is capable of being stored as a liquid or a gas and then burned or converted into electricity through a fuel cell — all without producing greenhouse gas emissions.

Isolating hydrogen takes a lot of energy. And right now, most hydrogen is produced by burning natural gas, which has an enormous carbon footprint. But electrolyzers, which split water into hydrogen and oxygen, can be powered by renewable energy like wind turbines and solar panels.

“Clean hydrogen produced with resources like wind and solar, that lets us get us to this place where we’re not putting more carbon in the atmosphere,” President Biden said on Friday, as he announced plans to award up to $7 billion to create seven regional hydrogen hubs around the country.

That money will be used to kick-start development of the infrastructure and production facilities needed to make and transport hydrogen at scale and to fund projects in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon and beyond.

The Biden initiative primarily helps zero-emission “green” hydrogen and includes some projects — like one in Appalachia backed by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia — that use more polluting sources of hydrogen.

Despite that concession to the fossil fuel industry, experts said the new federal funding was a big step toward creating a world in which hydrogen is clean, affordable and abundant.

“Over time, as the infrastructure gets built out everywhere, we will see a huge private investment in the production of hydrogen and the delivery of hydrogen in these cheaper ways,” said Jack Brouwer, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and the director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center.

‘A virtuous cycle’

There’s a lot to like about hydrogen as a fuel source.

“There’s a virtuous cycle that the Earth can sustain forever, where we take water out of the environment to make the hydrogen and we get oxygen back into the air,” Brouwer said. “And then when we convert the hydrogen back again, we use the oxygen out of the air to make the water again.”